Eastwood on a Saturday

Before anything.....From my family to yours,
Good cheers, good health, peace, love and prosperity to all of us! Happy New Year!

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I met my two friends at Eastwood last Saturday. We were supposed to have our dinner before Christmas but all were busy so we postponed it a week after. As always I enjoy going out with them. We had pizza and pasta at Pasto. We went around the tiangge (flea market) where I was able to buy a red blouse with puffed sleeves. It was a good buy actually, fits me well, nice feel of the fabric and below P500 (roughly 12USD).


Pasta is really good at Pasto.
More on Pasto in my food feature in coming posts.
Eastwood was jampacked as it was a Saturday night, gimmick night. There was a concert too featuring Regine Velasquez, one of the Philippines' top songbirds. My friends and I were supposed to have dinner at Jack's Loft but my, it was so full. I love the cakes at Jack's Loft. But a lot were still waiting so we have no choice but to transfer to the more laid-back Cafe Adriatico.

Around dinner time my hubby and my daughter came to fetch me. They had dinner with us at Adriatico. My hubby said the Lechon Kangkong tastes great. This dish is quite unsual for me though.

Lechon Kangkong
I was still full from all the pasta so I just had maja blanca. Maja blanca or coconut cake is a popular Filipino delicacy. For this particular order, all I can say is I only had a teaspoonful of it. My friends checked it out but didn't like it too. I was expecting a softer, corn-flavored finish. It's just plain sweet.

Maja Blanca (Coconut Cake)

My daughter is a pasta person too. She got herself a baked macaroni and consumed them all. I tasted it and it's good, it's like home-made. It's rich with sauce and the sweet-sour taste is just about right.


Baked Macaroni

We all had a grand time as we went home at almost 12 midnight. My daughter enjoyed the picture taking with her Titas at the theme area of Eastwood. The area has a really festive mood.

We had coffee and a late snack at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf again (this was our meeting place earlier). We were a little tired already and did not bother to see the fireworks outside. On the way to the parking area, my daughter dropped by Eiko, an accessories store for tweens and surveyed some items.



We had a grand time, who wouldn't? Being with family and friends are always the best. :)

A Fun Mess

My parents and the rest of my family living in another country love sending us packages of just about anything every now and then, mostly gifts for my daughter. One of the holiday presents my mom gave to my daughter is a scrapbook set. My daughter excitedly opened them upon receiving them. She eagerly cut, pasted, designed, stamped and what-have-you the pages of the scrapbook. It was a little messy on the table but it's fine with me. She's enjoying these kinds of activities and I encourage it. It helps bring out her creativity. :)




See more messy stuff here. Happy photo hunting! :)
I'm off for some groceries and meeting some friends after. I'll continue going around the messy photos later tonight. :) Have fun!

Far from the Madding Crowd

We went to Olongapo last Friday and had an overnight stay at Subic. Subic is a forested area where monkeys are free to roam around the stretch of the road. Warning signs are up so that motorists are aware to give way to the monkeys when they cross the road. Also, monkeys are not to be fed by passersby.

The monkeys are cute actually. Most of the people slow down to take their pictures. The monkeys tend to show off and some go even near the cars. I don't want them jumping on me so I took their pictures from afar and with our car windows up. :)



A break from the city traffic.

See the monkeys along the road.

Sitting pretty. :)
I do not observe Christmas but boy I have been busy since the start of the holidays, how much more those who are all agog for the Christmas eve. :) If you need to relax from all the hustle and bustle, you can check out Weekend Snapshot participants.

Happy Holidays! :)

Merry Lights

I was out of town and got back a few hours ago. I've to run to another activity after arriving home. Would I miss photo hunt? No, especially I like the theme for this week - Lights. So many lights wherever I go. It's the holidays. I took light here as brightness or illumination. Oh so many of them. :)

Oh, it's a humungous tree! I'm not sure how tall it is but it seems like as high as a five story building.


Even the road leading to the tree is well-lit. The trees are screaming with beautiful lights.



You may visit other photo hunters if you want to see more light.

Messages

My husband and I were munching over the chocolates my cousin gave us. He teasingly showed me what he found printed from the inside of his chocolate wrapper.



Funny thing, look at what I got from my piece. :)


These chocolates by the way are Dove. I was thinking does Unilever produce or distribute chocolates already. Well, it's from a totally different manufacturer.

Check out a lot of other interesting Weekend Snapshots. Enjoy! :)

Basketball

It was a long day yesterday but 'twas fun. We did our holiday shopping, the first wave. That's what I call it. :) There are still other things I need to buy, more on gifts. I have not completed them yet.

After going around the department store, my daughter asked if we can drop by Time Zone, a family amusement center which carries interactive games among other things. The intended few minutes lasted for more than an hour. As always, I am the family photographer. My daughter tells me she reminds me of the mother of one the characters from Bratz movie who takes pictures of her daughter like her every move is a milestone. Funny, daughter, funny.


Score, 4 points.

Daddy couldn't resist. Additional 2 points.

Curious how the others spent their weekend? Click here. You might want to join too.

Long Walk, Long Strand

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. I'm standin' here outside your door...If I may borrow these lines from Jewel's song, Leaving on a Jet Plane. We're not leaving here through a jet plane but through the resort's service vehicle.

This was taken from Dos Palmas, the beautiful resort in Palawan. It's early in the morning on our fourth and last day of stay. Baggages were positioned in front of the beach villas so the drivers can pick them up and send them ahead to Puerto Princesa where we are booked in another hotel for the Underground River trip (more on that in another post).


It's a long road from the beach villas going to the resort's reception area. Plus the fact that baggages are heavy with all the souvenirs we bought from the island, I wouldn't want that long walk.

In an unrelated story, fettucinne noodles are somewhat long which makes it a mess sometimes to eat it. I'm teaching my daughter to cut them first and twirl the fork so the noodles won't slide in her fork.



I'll be out after this post. I'll be going around long posts later. :) Happy weekend! :)

In a Nutshell

I'm still working on this.