2 Weddings, 1 Weekend

glad to have been part of two dear friends' weddings over the weekend :) it was a good opportunity rin for Jeff and myself to get ideas and think about our future wedding naman

January 3, 2014

Jopa and Dan's Wedding in Tagaytay

Jopa is the third in our GS barkada to tie-the-knot! it was quite a long but amusing Church ceremony. admittedly only found out about certain details in their relationship during the priest's sermon. :)

mabuhay ang bagong kasal!

it was also the first time ever that I got to attend a ceremony in Calaruega. Jeff and I visited here a few years back, but we didn't get to go inside. the chapel setup was quite intimate and it sure was different seeing the place at night

friends of the bride photo op

I think Calaruega is really an ideal venue for weddings; however the local government really should do something about the road; it was not asphalted/cemented + there were no light posts in the area too; considering what I think would be a huge number of couples who get married here, they should at least exert some effort in improving the roads leading to the chapel; especially for ceremonies held in the evening

the ceremony ended at around 830 pm na; we should have followed the earlier advise to take heavy snacks talaga haha; we then headed back up towards Alfonso to reach the reception venue: Rosemont Gardens

it was a simple venue but was transformed to a really nice wedding reception place; I loved how the arrangements came together and you could really see how much effort had come into each detail of the wedding

a photo of Jopa and Dan + the menu (hehe) welcomed us in our table

cool personalized M&Ms as part of their dessert table

Paulinians + partners reunited

cheers to the newlyweds!

the matron of honor. Fria delivers a message to the couple

Coders missing Jo and Fayme

cute photobooth backdrop :)

the wedding was made more special with the wonderful messages from family and close friends; sayang we didn't get to stay until the end; but we sure left very excited and a bit pressured thinking about our own hehe. :)

#db1314

Transfiguration Chapel
Caleruega, Brgy. Kaylaway, Batulao, Nasugbu

Rosemont Gardens
General Aguinaldo Highway, Laurel, Batangas



January 4, 2014

Lem and Joyce's Wedding

buti na lang hindi on the same day ang wedding although admittedly ang hirap rin pala ng magkasunod na events! hehe. it was quite a long drive from Tagaytay to Libis, but glad we made it on time naman

it was another first for me to attend a wedding here at Christ the King

since it was a particularly hot afternoon; it was a relief to have a church with AC; made me think that should be a consideration too when we plan ours hehe

I think the walk down the aisle is usually the most emotional part of the ceremony if not for the vows; sayang I missed Jopa's walk but I was near the aisle during Joyce's + seeing Lem crying then--couldn't help but feel emotional too (pano pa kaya when its our turn na!)

it was a more straight forward ceremony; the 'you may now kiss the bride' portion came in the middle this time then the signing towards the end; while Jopa's had that naman in the middle and the kiss portion was in the end; there was no single format pala for a wedding 'no?

I was pretty impressed with their wedding planners/faciilitators I must say, hehe. very well organized and they seemed to have a lot of 'pakulos' planned :) it was the first time too that I've seen 'male' wedding organizers

Christ the King church - the couple's first kiss as newlyweds - the sweetest kiss including their parents

so the question from everyone is: kelan daw kami??

first photo op with Lem and Joyce

from Libis, we then travelled to Makati for the reception at the Rigodon Ballroom of the Peninsula Manila

loved the accents/details of their reception venue; they even had a 'front porch' setup for the newlyweds area; they placed this in the middle section of the ballroom which made it more accessible to all the guests vs the usual front near the projector screen

upon entering they provided give-away snacks to each guest consisting of mixed nuts, raisin and M&Ms; on the tables naman there was a canister of mints

when the couple entered the ballroom; Lem sang while they were walking to eventually lead them to their first dance! 

A for effort Lem!

we enjoyed watching a video of their love story + Lem's proposal though we've already heard it from him before :) what we enjoyed more though was taking photos and hashtagging them all to get printouts haha

looking forward to having dinner with the team this time in the couple's new home naman!

#lemandjoyce1414

Christ the King Church
Greenmeadows Avenue, Quezon City

Peninsula Manila
1226 Makati City

Maple

January 2, 2014

This was a really nice way to start the year -- a new resto to try + a dinner/mini-reunion with Unilever colleagues, both former and current

Have long been hearing about Maple and seeing it in friends' IG posts, and have always considered it a posh breakfast place kaya I never really made an effort to try it out on my own :p

they have a branch na pala in Shang Mall, and since most of us were from the North area, this was where we opted to meet up

pretty homey--Maple in Shangrila Mall, East Wing

I really liked the vibe of the resto plus it was kid-friendly too! they had a portion allotted for toys and bookshelves for kid guests

since we were there ahead, we had some safe starters muna, while waiting for the rest

Chili Fries (Php 225) and New England Clam Chowder (Php 250)

everyone else enjoyed the fries--I like my fries just plain fried and salted so it was too much for me; the clam chowder was tasty too and was good enough for sharing

Yanpi recommended the Tapa, but we opted to have other dishes

Fish and Chips (Php 480) and Chilean Mussels (Php 375)

both dishes were okay naman pero when we saw the Tapa they ordered we couldn't help but drool over it and ended up ordering one too

Prime Rib Tapa (Php 520)

four of us actually ended up sharing this dish; and we didn't even get to finish everything. it was really good and had thin portions of fat kaya I liked it more; some parts though were quite gnawy lang and the fried rice that came with it was just too oily for me

Sumptuous Salmon Torte (Php 2200)

the name pretty much said it all. it truly a full meal on its own: Salmon fillet + rice + onions and spinach all in a pastry puff as huge as a standard chopping board = sarap :)

considering everything that we ate, there was barely room for anything else; kaya we ended up just ordering one dessert plate for all of us

Red Hot Choco Lava Cake (Php 280)

sure would love to take my family for meal here some time soon!

last customers out!

Maple

G/F East Wing

Shangrila Mall
https://www.facebook.com/MapleRestaurantPH

The Year That Was

To date, I still owe myself about 11 blog entries on trips and food finds. :|

I attempted to finish everything over the holiday break, but as usual I ended up procrastinating and not completing even a single entry. hehe.

so for now, let me just do a quick recap on the year that was...

1. A lot of new food finds - surprisingly mostly Japanese
2. 3 domestic trips: Bohol, Iloilo-Guimaras, Dumaguete-Siquijor
3. 4 overseas travels, 3 of which in new countries: Siem Reap, Japan, Singapore-Malaysia
4. 3 theme parks: Tokyo Disneyland, Universal Studios and Legoland
5. 2013 was also an opportunity to move out of my comfort zone--moving to a new role + mounting #UnileverOneAmazingWeek but in the end we achieved # 1 Employer of Choice and were recognized as Unilever Heroes :)
6... and last but not the least, Jeff and I got engaged!

Looking back though, what made the year great were not just the places/destinations/events, but it was having to share these moments with my loved ones, family, friends and colleagues.

Hoping for bigger moments in 2014!

I hope to also be able to update my blog more constantly this time around :)

Happy New Year everyone!

Clucky's

November 2, 2013


as shared in my other posts, whenever Jeff and I would want to try new food, we'd usually check out SM North Edsa Annex area particularly where Save More used to be

and usually we'd find ourselves a newly-opened resto naman in fairness

this time, our newest food discovery was Clucky's

Clucky's is attempting to compete with the likes of BonChon, Chicken Charlie with its Korean fried chicken

our choices:

1) Parmesan fries (Php 49) [also comes in a bigger size at Php 85]
2) Bulgogi meal with 12 oz drink (Php 149)
3) Kimchi meal with 12 oz drink (Php 149
4) Wings Solo (Php 125) solo

I liked their rice topping meals a lot. they had quite big servings and Jeff and I were able to share pa. yung parmesan fries nothing too extraordinary. the dip I really didn't get the taste so much.

not too happy about the chicken though - at first glance it seemed very artificial particularly yung skin breading. when I ate it, the whole thing practically came off na parang kinabit lang sya when it was fried! taste wise so-so lang din

I think if I were to return here though I would go back for the rice toppings lang. hehe


Clucky's
SM North Edsa, G/F Annex

Floridablanca

November 1, 2013

I rarely look forward going to Pampanga as it is practically an extension of Manila for us. we go here at least once every quarter ata and it has always been the same.

sure the travel is much faster and more convenient and we now have better mobile phone signal + wi-fi + cable; but beyond that there really is nothing much else left to do. (oh no, I'm starting to sound like my younger siblings na!)

#agileworking Pampanga style

over the weekend however, whilst there was work to be done (which addresses my issue on the lack of anything to do) I was able to see our home town in a really different light, unintentionally, haha

Floridablanca Town Hall

I went along with my parents to Floridablanca, which was just right next to Guagua, the town Mama grew up in. they had to buy some things at the market, and I badly needed to get meds naman for my colds

while waiting, I walked around muna and made my way towards the church. I know I had mass in this town a decade ago pero I couldn't remember if this was the same one.

I only got to take photos from my outside since it was already quite dark na. I already applied some filters in the one I took below just to make it more visible

this was the San Isidro Labrador (St. Joseph the Worker) Parish Church pala which was built in 1867 and it was actually considered a heritage church... sweet!

actually just before we reached the town proper itself, we also passed by this house below:

reading about it when we got home, it turns out to be another historical landmark, this time in the form of an ancestral mansion

this house was referred to pala as the Bahay na Puti or the Alvendia House

it is presently owned, preserved and maintaned by the Justice Carmerlino Avendia Sr. -- galing!

since we only passed by it, there was only so much info I can get. so I made a mental note to make sure I get to go back and have more time to spend in this town and see what else I can discover!

speaking of, just before heading back to Guagua, I chanced upon this Coke-branded bicycle --pretty cool!

looking forward to where else my feet will take me!

Shared Services Halloween 2013

October 30, 2013

here's just to share some photos from our halloween celebration at the office last week. the Shared Services/Functions group came together to have a United Nations themed halloween party for the kiddos

candy anyone?

Andrew brought Kimi and Mia for trick or treat!

the kiddos invading the HR building

some of cute kids who visited us at the HR building for trick or treat!

looking forward to next year's celebration!

19 East + Side A

October 29, 2013


I honestly was not too thrilled about this plan at first but since Jeff was away then plus the place was just less than 15 mins away from the house, so might as well. haha

I love OPM a lot and I liked some songs of Side A, but I just thought then na 'lipas' na sila + super 'gasgas' na the songs that made them big then

well naisip ko na lang better Side A than Freestyle which was the group's first option, hehe

as early as 730 pm we were already at 19 East. the show was scheduled at 930 pm which gave us just enough time to have dinner.

this was actually my first time to 19 East considering that I live along Sucat lang. I've always wanted to go especially before Sugarfree disbanded, but just never got the chance to

we went inside the Music Hall to make sure we get the best seats, unfortunately they were still setting up, so we had to go out and have dinner outside at the garden

okay naman yung garden. we opted for a table which was overlooking Laguna de Bay (albeit dark) so it was a breezy and added to a good, relaxed atmosphere

19 East (view of the music hall from the garden)

unfortunately lighting wasn't that good, so I opted not to take photos of the dishes we ordered, but to share:

Pork Sisig (Php 198)
Halaan Soup (Php 179)
Grilled Squid (Php 93/100g)
Sizzling Veggies with Squid (Php 179)
Liempo (Php 179)
Beef Salpicao (Php 235)

haha 179 is the default price ata dito. the food was actually quite good. I especially liked the sisig. medyo medium rare lang ang luto ng salpicao kaya I didn't like it as much, pero malasa. over-all good food na for the price

by 9 pm we made our way inside since a lot of people started coming in na rin while we were having dinner. apparently Radha was there pala together with Jomari Yllana 

IG @jobnacpil tonight! #hrkaladkarins

it was only at around past 10 pm however when the band came in. you could tell they were just firming up their song list when they got there. I guess they also considered the demographics of the audience

iba talaga ang voice ni Joey G. still as good as how it was then. it was interesting to note too that all the band members pala can sing, and it was good that they were also able to showcase this as they took turns singing. I also noticed that they have younger members this time

I particularly liked their other vocalist, Lee Von. he has a deeper voice which helped complement Joey G's higher range; crazy guitar skills + he was kinda cute rin

IG @jobnacpil live music at its finest #SideA

I was actually expecting them to sing their original songs lang or the songs they covered in their albums so I got really thrilled when they started playing the likes of Africa (Toto) and The Man Who Can't Be Moved (The Script)

lalo when they did a cover of Kenny Loggins' Heart to Heart -- classic!

here's a quick video I took pala when they covered the song

during their 2nd set pala they even invited Radha over and she sang a couple of songs too. they started playing some sappy love songs though which I didn't enjoy so much and since it was already past 1 am, I opted to leave before the gig. hehe.

ibang klase talaga 'pag live music. sa totoo lang it has been decades ata since I last went to a legit concert. so I'm really looking forward to being able going to a big one atleast next year!

for now I think I'm gonna monitor that 19 East gig list and watch out for other performers too. but I sure won't mind catching Side A (and Lee Von) again soon!

IG @jobnacpil #Repost from @marijoanne #goodtimes with the #hrkaladkarins #Side A

19 East Bar and Grill

Km 19 East Service Road

Sucat, Muntinlupa City

http://19east.com/index.php