Kitchen Princess

Trying to avoid the Christmas crowd, I was finally able to go shopping for gifts for my godkids today, Christmas day. Yes, admittedly I am one of those who procrastinate when it comes to shopping for Christmas. I couldn't resist buying this Disney Talking Kitchen for one of my godkids Andrea. As you can see from this image taken a few hours after I dropped off the gift at her place, Andy has fallen in love with her new toy.

And the winner is . . .

Here I am accepting the gigantic check from Discovery channel & Nokia representatives for winning the First Time Mobile Film Makers Award last Dec. 15, 2005. It was truly a proud moment, the 2 months of hard work really paid off. Please check out the mobifilms website to see my award winning entry. THANK YOU to all who supported me all through out, especially to Jackie, Lesley, Ica, Christiane, Melissa, Amy, Mama Loy, Sockie, Jigs, Louie & Carina.

Beeline for Bibingka

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One of life's simple pleasures for me is eating a freshly baked/cooked (over charcoal) bibingka. Despite my no-carb diet, I just could not stop myself from ordering one while we were at Tiendesitas. Bibingka is a mixture made from eggs, flour, coconut milk, sugar & topped with grated coconut, slices of salted duck egg & butter.

Every Tom, Dick & Harry

Couldn't resist taking this shot while we were doing some shopping at Tiendesitas. They were just the cutest little . . .

Discovertree

Saw another beautifully decorated Christmas tree at the lobby of Intercon hotel.

Not so little chicken

I usually hate movies about animals and avoid them like the plague, no Benjie or Lassie's for me!! So guess how shocked I was that I really really liked the new Disney animation Chicken Little. I had an appointment at the Intercon at 2:30 which was pushed to 3:30 at the last minute, so I decided to take in a movie since the weather was icky with rain, didn't feel like much shopping at all. I had wanted to see Reese Witherspoons new movie but unfortunately it was gonna end past 4pm, so I had no choice but to watch Chicken Little. Oh my goodness, the movie was hilarious, so funny, editing was very tight, didn't have too many dragging scenes like singing and stuff which I really really hate! This is really a MUST SEE movie!!!

Hamming it Up

This was the sight that greeted me when I decided to drop by Excelente on Palanca street, as you can see it is very famous for it's cured hams. With only 3 people at home, I usually just buy a fourth of a kilo.

To Pho or not to pho

I have been cutting back on my carb intake for the past 2 weeks to try to bring down my triglyceride levels so says my doctor. But I guess with a ton load of projects that I've been working on at the same time, I kinda went ballistic when I saw this new restaurant "Pho Saigon" on Banawe st., I love Vietnamese noodles and haven't had one in a long long time, so I was pretty excited to try out their Pho. I don't know if I was just hungry or what but everything was so good, the noodles, the coffee, the spring rolls, it was all so heavenly!!!

A Visit to the Big House

This is probably the most famous house in the entire archipelago, the house of BIG BROTHER. Despite not having watched a single episode, I still couldn't resist seeing it when I went to pick up my paycheck at FOOD magazine.

Switching to JD

Just saw the video for the new INXS song "Pretty Vegas" and it looks and sounds awesome. Their new album SWITCH will be released on November 29, and I'm looking forward to seeing how well their new vocalist JD Fortune gels with the band, being that Pretty Vegas was something he wrote on his own. But I must say that he looks super hot on the video! Hopefully he will be a worthy replacement for the late, great Michael Hutchence.

I'm seeing Red!

"Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches . . . "

Thanksgiving Feast

Here is the thanksgiving feast that I had been slaving over since 9am. I made 2 turkeys, 2 pecan pies, & the mashed potatoes w/ parmesan cheese, the clam chowder soup was made by the cook while my aunt Judy made her own wholewheat french bread which we spread with garlic butter. Everything was all GOOD!!!

Turkey & Pie

This is my first attempt at making pie, and I must say the results of my Pecan Pie were just purrrfect!!! Thanks to Judy (filling) & Melanie(crust) for sharing their recipes with me.



This was possibly the hugest turkey I have ever cooked in my life, it must have been at least 20 lbs., the thing was enormous and you can just imagine how heavy it was too.

Star Sighting

Of all the unlikely places to catch my first ever glimpse of "Madame" in the flesh, had to be at a church where I had gone for a relatives wake. It was almost 10pm and we were on our way home, when my aunt caught sight of her standing by the entrance, I quickly took out my N90 to shoot some video, unfortunately because of the low lighting conditions the phone couldn't manage to pick up an image of her. I have truly failed the Great Manolo.

Angus Burger

For the past few weeks I have been craving for a really good hamburger, I guess it started more than a month ago during the trial shoot of the N90 in the swimming pool when Louie took us to this hamburger joint called WHAM! for our lunch, I swear those hamburgers were one of the best burgers that I've had in my life. They were huge 1/3 pounds of pure beef goodness, the damn thing couldn't even fit in my mouth, but man were they yummy! So today, when I saw Brothers Burgers, I knew that it was a decent enough place to satisfy this hamburger craving of mine. I ended up ordering the very pricey Angus Burger at 220php a pop which was despite not being as huge as the Brothers Pounder was as the counter guy said, "Taste really different from our regular burger". With that kind of sales pitch, the carnivore in me just had to try it. With such good meat being used, I should have kept my burger plain & simple in order to savor the actual taste, but I couldn't resist not adding on the sauteed mushroms & glazed onions & of course the garlic cream cheese spread. When my order was finally called, I was disappointed to find that the meat wasn't quite as tender as I would have liked, I think that they cooked it a bit too long which made the meat a bit tough, but inspite this the burger did smell wonderful & the meat definitely had a lot of flavor. The important thing is it really hit the spot! I'm planning to go back next time & order a regular burger together with another Angus Burger and do an actual taste comparison.

Autographs anyone?

I dreaded seeing myself on TV since I assumed from the sneak peeks that Channel News Asia was showing of me that what I said during the very short interview was something totally incoherent. But after watching the whole show tonight I realized that I was able to redeem my little faux pas after all. I finally get to be on regional TV and I had to look so harassed, my hair was a mess & I had a huge pimple on my cheek. Most of my fellow semi-finalist were shown also, but for some reason only Ferlin & I had actual talk time. I was also surprised that they did not even mention about the ongoing contest of Discovery/Nokia.

YOU?

Couldn't resist taking a shot of this huge display, I wanted to remove the "O" tho.

It's in the air

The holiday season at the mall is in full swing with the huge wreaths hanging all over the place. Had to search high and low for a suitable dress to wear for the cocktail event next month.

Disco Madonna

Am finally back from 3 weeks of hibernation as I call it while I was doing my final mobifilm submission to the First Time Mobifilm Makers Contest. Haven't updated my blog in awhile, guess I was too stressed to even deal with my updates, but I'm now back on track. One of the first things on my "Back to Normal" agenda was to buy my ultimate idol Madonna's new CD "Confessions on a dance floor". I had already downloaded the first single "Hung Up" on my N90, and made it the ring tune on my phone. It sounds way cool. All hail Madonna!!!

Happy Halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy halloween!!! The above image was taken during our Halloween party last year where me & Mae won best in costume. I was dressed as the very controversial Michael Moore - with videocam as accessory.

20 years of Porsche

How lucky were we, that on the 2 nights we were staying at the Ritz carlton, one of those nights was the 20th anniversary celebration of Porsche in Singapore. It was just unbelievable to see rows and rows of these fabulous cars all lining the driveway of the hotel.

Commecial material

Here I am being filmed for a tv commercial featuring the new Nokia N90 at the poolside of the Ritz Carlton Millenia. Yes Virginia, this is my 15 minutes of fame!!!

15 to 6

So the moment of truth has arrived, from the 15 hopefuls, 6 have been chosen. And yes, I was fortunate enough to be one of them. Please check out the submissions of my fellow finalist:

Bob from Bali
Ndol from Thailand
Soon Ling from Singapore
Oman from Singapore
Noel from the Philippines

I've been Discovered!

I haven't posted anything about my plans to join Discovery Channel & Nokia's "First Time Mobile Film Maker's Award" till now. I guess from the time I was informed that I was one of the semi-finalist from this dude named Harry from Singapore, things didn't really sink in. There were days before i got my ticket to singapore that I thought Ashton Kutcher was gonna come out and say that I was being PUNK'D big time. But it was really really true "I WAS A SEMI-FREAKIN-FINALIST!!!!!!
Click this LINK to go to go to the official mobifilm site & view my submission

Halloween Buzz

Here are some pics of my super cute godson Travis geared up in his Buzz Lightyear costume that his mom searched high and low for. It arrived just in time for Halloween.

Cibo Faves

My 2 favorites at Cibo. The ultra refreshing Pomelo Juice and the utterly sinful Penne il Selvaggio cooked to a perfect al dente.

Finally Featured

My article that I wrote about the Seychelles has finally been featured in the 10th Anniversary issue of Food Magazine.

PSID gets personal at GB1

If you get a chance to go to Greenbelt 1, p[ease try to drop by the exhibit of PSID where my cousin Mel is one of the students in this years graduating class. This exhibit focused on designing based on ones personality. So before you enter the main exhibit area, you are given a booklet questionnaire to answer, and at the end of this short test, it determines the type of personality you have, ranging from sensuous, laid back, bohemian (which was me), urban, pure & wild. You can then compare your results to the different areas in the exhibit. I was visually impressed with how elaborate & over the top some of the designs were. Congratulations to Mel, Vicky, Camille & Jamie!! The exhibit runs everyday for the whole month of October.
Here's the Sensual Bathroom created by cousin Mel & co.

I just loved this bedroom with the original moon motiff creatively using swarovski lights as accent.





This Indian inspired meditation area was the most visually stunning room in the whole exhibit.





I really liked the way this living room was designed, it had a small elevated nook where one can enjoy complete privacy.

Great catch!

Took the day off yesterday & stumbled upon the new restaurant called Fish & Co. AT GREENBELT3. I had seen a write up about this place a few days ago, so i was actually excited to try it out. Despite not being a big fish fan, I don't know why I absolutely love freshly cooked Fish & Chips. We were able to get a free squid ring appetizer coupon on our way up the escalator, and boy were those squid rings really good, it came with 3 dips, garlic mayo, minced garlic & a chili dip, I then ordered the new england clam chowder which also came out perfect. The taste, the consistency, plus it had just the right amount of veggies & clams. My main course was of course the Fish & chips but I chose the new york style one which was supposed to have parmesan cheese stuffed inside the fillets. My order was pretty big, it came with large fries which I also love, unfortunately I couldnt quite taste the parmesan cheese, I was expecting a stronger taste but it was almost like eating a normal fish & chip. But I must say the fish was cooked perfectly & the batter was light & crispy. I'm already thinking about going back.

Purple Obsession no.2

Check out my funky new purple spectacles. They are so fine!!!

Detoxify Me!!!

This was the before and after image of my detox session with Dr. Mancao. The detox tub is filled with plain tap water, then depending on how toxic your system is, the water changes color from the different toxins being released by our bodies. Mine started from clear, to yellow to orange then to a murky rust brown, all in a span of 30 minutes.

2,000 and counting!

I missed my goal of getting 2000 hits on my blog by the time I hit my first anniversary by 2 days. But nevertheless thanks again to everyone for their support! You guys are awesome!

Veggie Post 4

Here is the latest image of my babies. They are growing heartily and I am counting the days till I can harvest them already.