DESPEDIDA FOR TITA PET AT BASIX RESTO, DUSIT HOTEL

Today, Kaye and I left for Dusit Hotel to meet up with some relatives having a despedida celebration for Tita Pet at Basix restaurant. Tita Pet arrived about a week ago and during one kitakits at Papa’s condo she asked for me and so before she left they made sure I would be around during her despedida. Only my daughter and I went there, although the titas instructed that the hubby and I were actually invited, as he is a bit uncomfortable when eating in big hotels and restos.

So here are just some of the food we ate at Basix. By the way one good thing about their buffet is their ‘cross-over’ thingy meaning even if we chose to dine at Basix restaurant itself, we can cross-over and eat/order food at their three other restaurants Benjarong (specializing in Thai cuisine), Umu (Japanese cuisine) and Cosca (Italian food). Basix itself served continental buffet and from there I chose basically meat dishes like hams and steaks and a bit of tempura for my first plate. There was also a salad bar but I guess I forgot to take some or maybe I just decided to throw away my ‘diet’ conscience for a day.







Then, for my next plate Kaye and I went to Umu with Mama Heidi and Auntie Bebs to get our Japanese favorites – salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi and of course…California maki! Yummy!















I also tried their authentic Pad Thai which the others ordered at Benjarong restaurant. I didn’t go up there na since I felt full already. Instead, Kaye and I feasted on dessert of fruits dipped in chocolate because they had a chocolate fountain!












The final meal we had was the Flourless Chocolate cake topped with Vanilla Ice cream from Tosca - it was so good that I forgot to take pictures…sorry! Meanwhile, here are some of the other food fares at Basix that we didn’t get to taste because we were already quite full, maybe next time! And I’d be sure to bring the kids too! I just wish that they were here to be able to see one of my favorite aunts in the world, there are only quite a few. Tita Pet and I became close when her husband (my Uncle Melo) died and she went home to the Philippines to bring his ashes. I joined the party that scattered his ashes at Laguna de Bay and during the trip we talked a lot. Our communication extended even long after she returned to her home town in Australia, primarily thru emails so I guess it is quite understandable why she would look for me whenever she visits the country. Goodbye Tita Pet, I wish we had more time to talk and catch up on things. Here's hoping we could spend more time together next time!

BOOK OF ELI: A Film review

Rainy Saturday afternoon today and so we had nothing much to do but sleep and eat and - watch a movie! Keith wanted to watch Book of Eli and since I told him I had that DVD, he pestered us to watch it and so we did. After eating breakfast and way before it was time to cook lunch, we went upstairs to our room and watched it with our PC. The story is about Eli (played by Denzel Washington) set in a world torn apart by war. Denzel is cast here as a drifter/survivor with uncanny skills and abilities that enabled him to fend off attackers and cannibals for the past thirty years. He has long been traveling to the West to guard a ‘sacred book’ which he believed he must bring to someone…somewhere. Along the way, he meets criminals and bandits killing and raping anyone just to survive in order to get some food, water or other supplies that can be traded (it seems money is not a commodity anymore in this future)

While Eli enters a town to get some water and have his ipod recharged he gets into a scuffle with a gang of bad men headed by a powerful man named Carnegie (played by Gary Oldman). Carnegie was impressed by Eli’s fighting skills so he offers him a place in his gang but Eli declines. Carnegie insists and tries to send Solara (Mila Kunis) to sleep with Eli to convince him to stay. But still Eli refused and instead teaches Solara to pray and shared his meal with her. The next day, when Solara tries to repeat the prayer with his mother, she also inadvertently revealed that Eli has been reading a book – THE BOOK - which Carnegie had been searching for so long because he wants to use the Bible to maintain his power and keep his town under control. And so he runs after Eli. They try to shoot Eli but they miss and Eli ends up killing most of his men before walking nonchalantly away.

Solara follows Eli on his journey and was almost raped by two thugs until Eli came along to save her. They continue traveling West and in their talks, Solara discovers that Eli is guided by a voice in his head that had whispered to him where to find the last remaining Bible in the world and where to bring it. They then visit a house with an elderly couple who they soon realize were cannibals who eat their visitors so they get up to leave but they see that Carnegie and his men have caught up with them. The old couple helps them to fend off the attackers and bring out an impressive arsenal of weapons. But they were no match for Carnegie’s weapons so the old couple got killed and half of their house got torn down. Carnegie succeeds in getting the book and shoots Eli in the stomach before taking off with the book and Solara. But Solara kills the driver and hurls a grenade at the third vehicle. Rather than taking after her, Carnegie lets her go because they have no more fuel left. Besides he already has the book, and that’s all that mattered to him.

Solara finds Eli still walking West despite his gunshot wound and they head to the Golden Gate Bridge (or what’s left of it) and take a boat to the island of Alcatraz. Inside, Eli is met by a curator of pre-war items who gets excited upon learning that Eli had in his possession a King James Bible. Eli then asks him to produce a paper and pen then proceeded to recite the bible word for word having memorized it for the last 30 years. Meanwhile, back in town Carnegie discovers that the Bible is locked and so he gets the Engineer to open it for him, when he finally gets it open he discovers that the entire book is in Braille…and that Eli is blind. He tried to get his wife Claudia (also blind) to read it for him but she lies and says she has forgotten how. Carnegie flies into a rage, having something he has longed for so near and yet he can’t have it. He falls into despair as his bar is looted by hoodlums since he no longer has enough men to protect him because most have died in his quest for the book.

Eli, on the other hand, finishes reciting the Bible and says one last prayer for Solara and the world before he dies. Eli is buried in a courtyard as printing of the Bible commences. Solara, meanwhile visits Eli in his grave for the last time before setting off with his machete and Ipod to embark on her own adventure. In all, the film was very good - the scenes depicting the post-apocalyptic future was in black and white and very nicely done, even the action scenes though violent were swift and artistic. But what’s amazing was the fact that Eli was blind was only revealed in the last part of the movie…a very nice twist indeed!
[photo grabbed from IMDB]

MY DAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY

I would have wanted a simple celebration for her birthday. After all, she’s just turning nine this year – not really a special number to hold a grand birthday. And besides, we didn’t plan to hold her birthday on a weekend – so it would just be a simple get-together with maybe some neighbors and her friends as guests. But it didn’t turn out as planned! Because Inang decided to take her entire brood from BP and even borrowed a jeep to ferry all of them to our small abode in Bulacan.












For sure, our planned food budget went awry that day and we had to make some major adjustments and bought additional food just to accommodate all of them. In fact, our house felt too small and too hot because we couldn’t seem to fit all of them inside!!! But it sure was fun!!! Tiring because we had to do all the cooking but fun all the same! The choco fountain was the hit of the show and the teens took turns drinking Boracay rum under the hot afternoon sun, whew! All that was lacking is a beach to dive into and it would have been perfect. Of course, I would’ve been much happier if the hubby was were here to tend to his relatives but he can’t go on leave today, so we just held the party without him.

NEW PETS…LOVE BIRDS FROM MAMA!

Mother’s day last Sunday and we paid a visit to my mother the next day, Monday to bring her some gifts – Celeteque moisturizer, a sack of rice and some cash, but guess what??? She gave us an even better gift - NEW PETS and I do believe my daughter would surely be glad about this! Because she had been hankering me to buy her some love birds but I figured with the bunnies and all, we surely can’t afford another pet??? Since that would be 4 more mouths to feed – coz there were four birds in all – three yellow ones and a cute, fat blue bird! Here are some of their pics of them at the office.
















P.S. They don’t seem to be lovebirds to me …more like parakeets from what I have been browsing over the net?

HEALING WHITEY

Just an update, after about three weeks since she had her ivermectin shots at the vet clinic, Whitey’s healing nicely - all her sore spots are gone! No more wounds in her nose, or her ears, and her feet. All we need to do now is make her eat more so she would be chubby again, like Brownie, and so that she would go back to looking her cute and cuddly bunny self. In a few weeks time, it would be her other bunny (Vanilla) that we’d be bringing to the vet for her shots. I just hope the others who are in their new homes would get the same treatment they did for them to be cured of mites and look good and cuddly once again.

JOGGING AT COLINAS VERDES

It’s Mother’s Day today and since we’re not really celebrating it - I didn’t cook any celebratory food and neither did I buy cake, I just decided to give a gift to myself – good health! Coz today my son and I decided to take our first ever jog at Colinas Verdes and I am truly glad that we did. It felt exhilarating to jog/brisk walk again though we both didn’t pressure ourselves since after all it has been more than a month (I think!) since our last run/jog at CCP. So rather than over exert ourselves we just paced our jogging with some walking (although my boy did more walking than jogging) and what’s more we didn’t finish the entire ‘track’ yet just up to the clubhouse since we were still unsure how far it would still go. We’d just finish it at some other time. What’s important is that we break the first barrier and established some great bonding time together. What we just need to do now is get the motivation to continue on and finish what we started. (P.S. The photo is not mine, I just saw it somewhere from the internet)

COOLING OFF IN THE HOUSE POOL

It’s the middle of summer and the heat is just unbearable - and what better way to beat the heat than wallowing in our very own swimming pool! Nope! We did not win the lotto and just bought a new house with its own pool (I just wish!) Instead, the kids made do with the next best thing there is - an inflatable pool set up at the back of the house! (so they won’t get directly hit by the sun) Here are some pics of their fun frolicking. The pool itself isn’t exactly new, I think we bought it some two or three years ago. It wasn’t too small as to fit just kids (in fact even adults and I myself have once taken a dip in it) and neither is it too big as to require a bigger space (which we don’t have!). It was on sale then – at only Php 1200(I think) and for the many years that we have been able to use it, I guess it truly is one very economical way to beat the heat of summer!