incessant rambling

This world will be a much better place. i was scanning through my old pics and stumbled across one of me sometime in the early 2000s. If I remember this right, this is in puerto galera where i celebrated my birthday and rose's. the place is a rest house in one of the private enclaves in mindoro that has its own docking port. i didn't even know rose was taking my pic. i've always loved animals, and for some reason, they flock to me wherever i go. they probably see a kindred spirit. o baka naman hayup lang talaga ako. :P

hapi berday to you, hapi berday to you! hapi berday hapi berday. hapi berday to you! sorry i don't have much to offer you on your berday. i've been bad and good this year. hopefully, mostly good. thank you for the blessings you've given me (and the rest of the world). don't give up on me (us) yet. that's me watching over your crib. yup, i fit right in the pic. i look like a donkey. errr.... a bearded (not-so) wise man.

i was gearing up for this point in the diet. after careful planning, i timed day 6 to fall on shaun's birthday. what other excuse do i have in eating all the beef and vegetables i need? Day Six Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content. Day Six Actual have you ever tried spicy lechon? am sure if anthony bourdain tried spicy lechon he wouldn't have blessed the overly salty and ugly looking zubuchon the distinction of the best pork dish. unfortunately, there wasn't much beef in the party. on the other hand, the diet doesn't lock down your protein intake to beef so any substitute would do. ubberlicious spicy lechon, cordon bleu (chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and ham, rolled into logs, coated with breadcrumbs and fried to golden brown perfection) and chop suey made up my meal for the evening. surprisingly, i wasn't able to go back for seconds. for dessert ma ann tried to seduce with krispy kreme d...

today's the first time that i'm going to have meat or protein as part of this diiiiiet. am not sure why there's a specific requirement for tomatoes, then again i'm not complaining. it must be some sort of food chemistry mumbo jumbo. Day Five Today is feast day. You will eat beef and tomatoes. Eat two 10 oz. portions of lean beef. Hamburger is OK. Combine this with six whole tomatoes. On day five you must increase your water intake by one quart. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing. Day Five Actual Since I don't have the patience to pluck fresh tomatoes i went for the canned version. more specifically the garlic and tomato herb salsa that i generously slathered over beef strips cooked in oyster sauce. yami! for dinner i had cow and chicken. not the cartoon. i guess protein substitution is okay as i was craving for some chicken. i got some tomato herb spaghetti sauce and used it on top of the fried crusted chicken fillet and i had a sm...

if king kong went on a diet he'd love this day. bananas and more bananas for the whole day mixed with three huge glasses of milk. i consumed a liter of milk today. late evening, the devils-in-disguise tempted me to step out for dinner. guess what, the restaurant had banana shake in the menu. pppuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrfect! amale and ray had the classic tapsilog (beef jerky with fried egg and rice) that wasn't soo tempting for me. on the other hand, quennie had beef stroganoff with the creamy mushroom sauce and tender beef that practically called out my name. hmmmp! good thing i'm on my beef and tomatoes day tomorrow! Day Four Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities. Day Four Actual Had bananas, low fat milk and cheated with two slices of the superbly fruity pineapple pie. didn't do the soup as i had no time to cook. let' see how this...

107 kilos to 103 kilos. that's the weight i registered when i stepped on the weighing scale. i was supposed to weigh myself tomorrow morning but i was sort of anxious how i was progressing considering the tough two days i had to go through. i am trying to discount the fact that i woke up at 3:45AM with barely four hours of sleep just so i can attend the misa de gallo in the office. Day Three A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today. Day Three Actual I had pumpkin soup in the morning with garlic croutons. "generally" vegetable but with a dollop of cream and pesto. lunch was different as i had stir fry spinach in garlic relish paired with a very (very) small portion of steamed cream dori fish (i know, NOT allowed). snacks was a medley of fruits from guava, melon, indian mango, ki-at (miniature mandarin oranges, which incidentally means clumsy, goofy in the local dialect) with a dash of iodized salt. i wen...

Today, i felt like a goat. a big hairy goat. a big hairy goat that wanted to chomp on pizza as the boss treated everyone to pizza during the town hall meeting. a big hairy goat that kept on munching my "exotic vegian" salad from kuls. Day 2 All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter. Day 2 Actual Had a huge plate of salad with balsamic vinegar dressing for lunch, had a meeting with Mayor Tommy Osmena and the barangay chiefs earlier in the day, tooo early in the day. I was served the meat pie from angelica by the decidedly EVIL staff from CIPC who knows i am on a diet. i was able to resist and took home three packets to give out to my colleagues in the office. i looked at them munching on the pork asado while purged myself ...

i stumbled across the General Motors Weight Loss Diet Program in metro magazine and was sort of inspired to go through the program based on the "documented" results of the writer who lost around 8 lbs in seven days. compared to the south beach or atkins diet, the GM diet is actually EASY to follow. no complicated food preparation and the diet allows you to have everything in the food pyramid. well not exactly. you can have everything in the food pyramid but not all at the same time! now, december is the worst time to go on a diet or any food deprivation program with just about every other day a christmas party is bound to come up. sometimes even two or three invites can happen in a single day. then again, it's a matter of will (or lack of it). so i'm chronicling my battle with the ever expanding waist with the hope that i come out leaner and healthier for new year! DAY 1 All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly...

as much as possible i try not to drag my work over the weekend. a boy can dream i suppose. in any case, last weekend my boss had a meeting with the mayor and he wanted me to tag along. he bribed me by promising lunch in marco polo. fair trade. value for money, marco polo buffet is at the top of my list. they have enough selection that will satisfy any palate. aside from the usual spread, they also had some french dishes laid out as part of a food festival of sorts. except that there was nothing interesting as they had stews that day. i feasted mostly on seafoods for a change, scallops, tuna, salmon, prawns - grilled, served raw. have had enough of meat for the past few days. on the other hand, whatever caorific savings i had got wasted with the the sweet ending. you know what i mean. tip, if you have to absolutely choose one then go for the flourless chocolate cake. the original sin. on another note, marco polo put on a grand display for their christmas village set near the entrance to...

despite the fact that travel, exotic places and hotels seem to be part of my rather nomadic life, my interest remain the same: the search for delicious food. it doesn't have to be something new. it doesn't have to be something grand. it can be an old recipe. it can be a staple dish served right on the streets with the street smoke lending it the extra flavor. here's an ilonggo take on the pinakbet, an ilocos original. pinakbet is the filipino version of the french ratatouille or mixed vegetables sans the stewed tomatoes. the ilocos original uses the traditional ginisa method to quickly stir fry garlic, onions, tomatoes with pieces of pork fat then throw in ampalaya, okra, talong, string beans, kalabasa and season with ginamos made from hipon to give it flavor. the ilonggo version adds ginamos and minced ginger during the stir fry process for a more fragrant dish. when the pork fat starts to caramelize lower the heat then layer the vegetables with the kalabasa at the bottom ...

a quickie here. went to bacolod december 1 and flew back december 2. was invited to attend the forum hosted by the job placement office and alumni relations office of university of st. la salle in bacolod. part of the balik la salle program for alumni to share with graduating students real world experience. well sort of. hmmmm, i now have a better understanding of the infamous beauty and brainless contenstant janina san miguel. it was hard fielding questions from students. pang miss universe. in any case, i had a cheap thrill being on stage. never mind that the hosts look like they're more nervous compared to the guests. i've been on stages and talked to audiences that number in the hundreds and thousands. but this one is particularly good. you see, not so many people know that i never went up to get my diploma in De La Salle University. i didn't get to attend my own graduation as i was working already. when they handed over the certificate of appreciation i just pretended ...

Two days spent in the company of two mayors. One for business, one for pleasure. Saturday I joined my VP for a meeting with Tomas Osmena for some discussion related to opportunities for the BPO industry in Cebu. I am not at liberty to discuss details but it was an interesting experience having to listen in to ideas taking shape and form. Who was it that said realities are born from dreams? The Mayor is soft spoken but the famous wit and acerbic humor is there. I probably heard quotable quotes that would have made the day of any field reporter wanting to cash in on the latest scoop. but then again, that's the nature of a confidential conversation, it remains private. Sunday I drove to Alcoy to meet up with my colleagues in UC. A simple get together of friends wanting to spend a day relaxing by the beach and catch up on the latest news. Reporters wouldn't have called it the latest scoop, but talking about the latest shenanigans in my old department is definitely much more interes...

tina (not her real name) leaned towards me and said "syet, her boobs are bigger than mine!". i stopped the urge to answer her "what boobs?", tina has always been flat chested. "and legs... look at those long looooong legs". at 5'3" tina is definitely not the "long legged legs" beauty of a melanie marquez. even melanie, would have a hard time competing with the ladies that sashayed in front of us. these girls had brains, really smart brains specially during the question answer portion. i guess having a jude bacalso or a vince escario doing the hosting would have helped this ladies feel more comfortable. and these girls have something more than what a tina or melanie can offer. dicks. oh well,some of them used to have dicks anyways. yup, i was watching a beauty pageant for alternatives titled Queen in Waterfront Cebu and found myself willingly paying the rather expensive ticket of Php 500. tina made me accompany her together with wendy to ...

maita's trying to get even by lending me "the alchemyst - the secrets of the immortal nicholas flamel". you see i got her reading percy jackson and the olympians , and just like any bookphile , she stayed up reading the books till the wee hours of the morning. oh you should have seen her a couple of weeks back, she fit right in the ghouls celebrating halloween in the office, dark circles around her eyes that no amount of block and white can ever hide. BWA HA HA HA HA (evil laughter) knowing how obsessive i can get (see aj? it's not just food!) with reading, i made it a point to set my timer every night to a maximum of thirty minutes (with an extra snooze or two) before settling down to read the book. if you're looking for a great read, this one's highly recommended. young adults category but this one packs a lot of intelligent stuff mixed in with factoids that will keep you writing up notes and notes of people, places and events to search in google. interested...

halloween is a major event in the company i work for. apparently, people look forward to october 31 or hallows eve as they get the chance to be themselves. este, to try on different personalities. apparently, this year they had a fashion show of the most ghoulish outfits and a fashion show of deathly minions. hmmm, gives an entirely different meaning to the term dead-end-career. i got the permission of ryan araneta to post some of the pics he snapped during the event. i think this one's influenced by the movie thirteen ghosts. is this a metaphor for a call agent's life? death in a cube or cubicle? boxed-in. let's see, if looks can kill, this one is a sure contender. contestant number one, sadako of "the ring" too much of block and white can cause psychosis. jinky and manny pacquiao after going through the skin bleaching procedure with vicky belat. in short, nakakamatay. teka, di ba yun ang rumor about a patient dying on the operating table with hayden doing the p...

okay, AJ thinks I am obsessed with food. hindi naman ano. slight lang. in any case, since i am slightly obsessed with food, i am posting some of the food pics i got from my most recent trip to bacolod. pasensya if after you go through this post you feel any slight rumbling in the pit of your stomach. any indecent threats posted in my comments section will be dealt with slightly este severely. deep fried soft shell crab on top of linquine with a sauce made from chopped mussel ala aoili (garlic dearie). verdict? the soft shell crab is not fresh or they used stale frying oil. to save the taste i requested for olive oil, a bit of chili flakes and parmesan - pasta alfredo, balay 21, lacson st. bacolod city. lamb on curry rice. surprisingly tasty, soft lamb tapa pieces fried topped a bed of delicately flavored rice and accented with strips of aubergine (talong aka eggplant) fried in olive oil. - balay 21 pesto pasta in cafe bobs, bacolod. don't order this one. blaaaaand. adobo nga green...

i had a dream last night that manny pacquiao was bloody all over. a zombie out of a b-rated filipino movie hack. as it turned out, cotto got turned into minced meat. which reminds me, me kasabihan tayo na kung ang tao kino-cotto ang cotto hindi pwedeng tinatao. kung kaya when manny was asked why he thought he had the edge over cotto, he quickly replied "aba syempre sa hidden soldiers ano! di kaya ng kuto at kung ano pang garapata yan! and reminder to all my pans, tonayt is the nayt i make history. i am the only living legend. so let's go and celebrate christmas with ginebra san miguel an if you have hangout then relax, take alaxan and drink your magnolia milk first before sleeping." hmmmm. photo courtesy of Ryan Araneta

okay, you're about to read a royal bitch fit. so if you're adverse to cuss words you better stop. sabi ko stop reading. okay here goes, mga-leche-na-taga-mae-krua-restaurant-dyan-sa-ramos-cebu-city-nakalimutan-order-ko-antay-ako-thirty-minutes-binagoongang-baboy-at-pandan-chicken-lang-yun-hindi-buong-lechon-tapos-tatanga-ng-waiter-at-waitress-tinanong-ko-sino-owner-sinagot-ako-building-o-restaurant-ano-yun?!?!-tapos-di-rin-pala-kilala-tapos-i-asked-what-is-this-"saya"-shake-ang-sagot-eh-di-ko-alam-i'll-check-tapos-pag-balik-thai-coloring-sagot-ko-why-the-hell-would-i-eat-food-coloring-buti-sana-kung-kulay-gold-e-kulay-pula-sya-pula-pula-pula-mabuti-naman-na-serve-nila-yung-spring-rolls-ko-that-tasted-like-springs-literally-bouncing-sa-tigas-ng-wrapper-talo-pa-pvc-plastic-maganda-lang-picture-ko-pero-di-sya-masaaaarap-wala-man-lang-sorry-waaallaaaaa-nung-umalis-ako-may-pa-put-your-hands-together-and-thank-you-pa-sinagot-ko-nga-oo-magdasal-kayo-kasi-walang-customer-...

by the time i got through sunday church service i was feeling a bit hungry and was craving for japanese food. red kimono was in my agenda, driven by some pretty good reviews about this new resto in ayala terrace. pretty darn good reviews indeed. the place was packed. i contented myself by going through the menu and found the prices to be very very reasonable. perhaps next time. in contrast, teriyaki boy used to have people lining up for a seat but nowadays it looks more like a ghost town. knowing the eating habits of cebuanos, i wouldn't be surprised that majority has eaten in teri-b but wouldn't really come in for seconds. it is just too pricey for this market that's known for the "been-there-once-fad" attitude. same story that's happening to TGIF. hint to peeps, keep your price low, servings ginormous and taste fabulous: perfect criteria for the cebuano market. since i was craving for something oriental i ended up in harbor city for some dumpling sampling. s...

I thought Jay's ex-girlfriend was really out of our lives. But heaven only goes that I was wrong. Kakakasal pa lang namin nun when Jay received a uninamous text. "Meet me at the clinic." I had a stinking feeling in my butt. I told him not to go. It might in danger him. Pero sabi niya, ok lang daw because life is what we make. Tumahimik lang ako. Sabi niya, "Penny for you talks." But I didn't know what to say. Beggars can't be losers. Isa pa, worried talaga ako na baka yung girl yun. Jay said, "Can't got your tongue?" I tried to smile at him. Kahit di ako nagsalita, actions speak louder than works, di ba? Be that as is may, umalis pa rin siya. I was out of the loophole. After a few hours, I called him on his cellphone. But my calls fell on Jeff's ears. Lalo akong nag-worry kasi I didn't even know Jeff. Sabina nga ba di na dapat umalis si Jay. That's what I'm talking about it. So I tried calling some friends who will help me f...

We' ve been friends for a long time ago. We come from the same alma mother.Actually, our paths crossed one time on another. But it's only now that I gave him a second look. I realized that beauty is in the eyes. The pulpbits of my heart went fast, really fast. Cute pala siya. And then, he came over with me. He said, "I hope you don't mine. Can I get your number?" Nag-worry ako. What if he doesn't give it back? He explained naman na it's so we could keep intact daw. Sabi ko, connect me if i'm wrong but are you asking me ouch? Nabigla siya. Sagot niya, The! Aba ! Parang siya pa ang galit! Persona ingrata!!! Ang kapal niya! I cried buckles of tears. Na-guilty yata siya. Sabi niya, isipin mo na lang na this is a blessing in the sky. Irregardless daw of his feelings, we'll go ouch na rin. Now, we're so in love. Mute and epidemic na ang past. Thanks God we swallowed our fried. Kasi, I'm 33 na and I'm running our time. After 2 weeks, he ploppe...

my dad's a joker. i am guessing he timed his death just before his birthday. and what a way to celebrate, his birthday falls on november 1 or otherwise known to most catholics as all saints day. not that my dad is anything close to a saint. my lola's favorite expression when dealing with papi is an exasperated "santa santisimo!". nevertheless, dad is well loved by everyone - his siblings, nephews, nieces, kids, grandkids, apo sa tuhod, sa siko, sa buko-buko and the "unknowns". you see, i am the youngest - legally that is. so i really don't know if there's more that got some of papi's loving. so here's a spread of some pics that i got during the celebration. if i were to sum it up, i can classify the people as follows: people i know, people i think i know and people i really don't know - there's just too many in the family. the oldies and the goodies. cousins, siblings, uncles and aunts in one mash up pic group picture again. i need a ...