Cafe Mary Grace

I was reading Yummy magazine and there was a mention of Mary Grace's chocolate cake. The photo was just so appetizing. I suddenly had a craving for it. I love the cafe's brownies and cheese rolls but haven't had their cakes yet.

That's what prompted me and my daughter to have a snack at Cafe Mary Grace when we were at Trinoma a few weekends ago. The cafe is small, cozy and inviting. The lighting sets the mood as well as the interior. Country style if I may say. The service is quite fast or maybe one won't really notice a few minutes has passed because one tends to read the messages neatly laid out on the table. They are messages of appreciation from the customers. Isn't that nice?


I took pictures of my daughter too while waiting for our food. This was right in front of the mirror. My baby's a big girl already, sigh. :D


I had my coffee alright to go with the cake.

Oh yes, the chocolate cake is divine. I don't use this word much as most chocolate cakes taste the same and more often than not, I just get disappointed. But this one, it has the right moist and its sweetness is just right for my taste. The filling does not drown the chocolate feel and flavor. I'll have this anytime.

My daughter likes the cafe's rich and smooth hot chocolate. I like the colorful cup and saucer as well.

My daughter had her pasta vongole. It's a little watery. I'm not sure if it's the clams or the noodles were not drained well. It's good nonetheless.

We are going back here for more that's for sure. :)

Fireworks

This week's photo hunt is all about anything bright. The photo below was taken from a three day convention sponsored by the company. A party was held on the last night, magnificent fireworks ended the event with a bang!

XOXO 90210

It's fun to be a child once in a while right? It's been said we should not lose the child in us. I certainly wouldn't want that to happen. Or else, stress will get the better of me. Nope. No way.

I need a break from my existential thoughts. Let me delve into my favorite past time, pop culture. Like what I've shared in my previous post, it has been a habit to go over my daughter's current interests in music, television shows and even books. It's because of this that I come across the "what's hot" list in Hollywood from my web hopping. I got to read about the fad on headbands - plaid, with big bows and
all that. I came to know that there is such a term as "man scarf". And "man bangs" too, would you believe. How juvenile can I get? Blame that on Gossip Girl.

Gossip Girl got my attention. The 90s has the cheesy teen drama, Beverly Hills 90210, the kids of today (and some of their mothers too) has Gossip Girl. I see them displayed on the book shelves of Power Books whenever I go with my daughter in the young-adult section. But she never touched Gossip Girl. She's still into more middle school stories. Good.

The story is fast phased and I like it that way. I look into the parent-child relationship of the main characters. Like most glossy soap operas, the parents have their own stories to tell which affected the current state of their children.

Gossip Girl, if you must know, is an anonymous blogger. She is more like the Perez Hilton of the school for the privileged in New York. She blogs about the personalities in their school so everyone tends to stay glued on what she is going to post. If Gossip Girl is into blog advertisement, maybe she'd be one of the highest paid bloggers. Some characters are known with the first letters of their names, there's S for Serena van der Woodsen and B or Queen B for Blair Waldorf. Such fancy names.

Fashion icons were born from this series. Like what I've said, the head bands, the scarf, the man bangs, the big hair. And it is supposed to be a conservative private school but what you see are girls with Ferragamo bags and vintage coats.

I expected that this show will have its love teams, love fights, kissing scenes. But it still surprises me sometimes how loosely the series tackles delicate subjects such as premarital sex - with different partners. It presents the "it girls" and "it boys" smoking, doing drugs and more often than not, partying. And the story unfolds what could be perceived as reasons why they are the way they are. Blame the 'rents. What could be the redeeming value of this series? Next question please.

We had Brandon Walsh then, it's Nate Archibald this time. Maybe he is the redeeming value. The one to your right. xoxo.


*Picture lifted here

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St. Paul Underground River

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, formerly St. Paul Underground River, is one of the places included in the second campaign for the new Seven Wonders of the World. See the live ranking. The Philippines' very own Underground River is on the fifth slot.

We were able to visit the place about two years ago. From Puerto Princesa, it was a two to three hours bone-jarring ride to Sabang Beach. After which there is a boat to take you to the site for about twenty to thirty minutes. More adventurous folks trek for several hours to reach the underground river. I'd take the boat anytime. :)

Traveling through the waters of Sabang is a welcome respite. The waves were quite strong as the storm was nearing Palawan already at that time. What looks like the last frontier is the entry point going to the underground river.


Heading to the river, a monitor lizard greeted us.



We were about twelve persons on the boat with our guide who also serves as the story teller. We had our orange life vests and the orange hard hat as part of the safety measures.


A little creepy going inside but it was a very exciting trip. Let's take a closer look at the cave's opening.


The following pictures are all taken inside the cave. The guide told us stories of the different rock formations. There are those shaped like fruits, like a little girl kneeling down. There was even what they call the 'First Family' - Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It was dark there of course but I managed to take a lot of pictures and here are a few shots with show distinct features.





This is my favorite photo of the cave. It was taken as we were heading back to the river.

I'm late in posting this for photo hunt's water theme. Check the others though for some more water pictures.

Keep It This Way

My daughter watches quite a number of shows from Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. I want to know what she's watching so more often than not I join her while she's glued to the tube. It's like meeting who her friends are, what she's up to or what she's engaged with at the moment. I want to know why these shows interests her. And oftentimes, subtly, I give my two cents about the characters. One good thing is it's clear with my daughter that these are just shows. When I react to a scene, she will tell me, "Mommy, it's what on their script, it's just a show". I see that's a good sign separating these glossy characters from reality.

More than Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, I am more familiar with Hannah, Miranda Cosgrove of iCarly, Selena Gomez of Wizards of Waverly, Mr. Bean, Fairly Odd Parents, Spongebob, etcetera. I also got to know Zach and Codie and got so fond of London, the bratty but funny daughter of Tiptone Hotel owner from The Suite Life of Zach and Codie. I know Zach Efron's birthday. I find myself arguing with my daughter that Ashley Tisdale is a lot better than Vanessa Hudgens. I like Ashley!

And when we watch, we identify each others' quirks from one of the characters. I ask her sometimes if I am as cool as the mommy characters she's watching. She said sometimes I am when I am not being grumpy and only if I will lose some weight. Ouch.

I also find myself researching why this tween band is called The Naked Brother's Band. It's one of my daughter's favorites. I feel uncomfortable with the name. But I came to know the story behind it. But I still wish they have a different name but let me not make that a big deal.

One time my daughter and I were in a record store and I asked the sales lady if they have a CD of The Naked Brothers Band. Obviously, she doesn't know that these are composed of kids ages 10 to 15. She was looking at me like I was desperately asking for a strip teasing sort of male group.

These days my ears (and hubby's too) are bleeding with the music of Jonas Brothers. These kids are like the Menudo of the 80s. My daughter and I laugh at their outfits. Skinny jeans, colorful ties, uncombed hair...so 80s I tell my daughter. But she loves them. Hubby abhors them. I'm neutral.

Because of my daughter too, I called up Sky Cable to ask when Camp Rock will be aired here in the Philippines. I get excited when she's excited. Unfortunately they don't have a play date here yet. My daughter is eagerly waiting for it. It stars The Jonas Brothers and her current favorite, Demi Lovato. Camp Rock is said to be as big as High School Musical. I don't think so. :D

I just feel good that my daughter is open about the things that interests her. I know that when she gets older and in her teens, there will be other interests that might get her attention. It's good to start early, bonding, girl talks. I intend to stay this way with her. Be cool about the things she loves, so to speak. Appreciate her taste. Understand her point of view, where she's coming from. Bottom line is being open to each other is a key success factor for our mother-daughter relationship. We'll keep it this way. :)

No Frills Chicken Pesto Pasta

We just stayed home after church and grocery today, Father's Day. I'd like to make a special post for the fathers in my life another time.

It's the first day of school for my daughter Andrea tomorrow so we opted to just stay home and rest the whole afternoon. Rest...not quite, I checked and prepared, together with my daughter, what she would be bringing to school tomorrow. I always get excited on the first day of school.

After which hubby and I prepared the chicken pesto pasta, his all time favorite pasta. Actually the chicken was supposed to be for our salad but we were not able to buy our avocado so we just made use of the chicken breasts for this pasta.

These two are staples in the house since we are all pasta lovers here. Bravo Pesto is available in most supermarkets. I buy Bravo for some of my deli needs. Check their website for some Italian recipes. You'll find they are quite easy to prepare.

Our olive oil is half-filled by now. I used to buy this at factory price when I was still in the food industry. Now I have to buy them at retail price.



The chicken pesto pasta with cheddar cheese on top. The chicken strips are there somewhere. We run out of parmesan. It should be in the list of staples in this household.

That's it, your no-frills chicken pesto pasta.
*Cook the noodles the usual way - remember al dente. Hubby prefers linguini over spaghetti. He likes the feel of it better.
*Boil the chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
*Saute about two cloves of garlic in olive oil.
*Mix the noodles and pour in the pesto. Toss, toss, toss.
*Cheese on top.

Normally there should be cream and spinach but we made do with what we have in the house. :)

Before I forget there's the cake.

Today's occasion was a good excuse to have this mocha chiffon cake. :)

More snapshots here. I hope you all had a fun weekend too! :)

Holy Cow

It was a quick and early dinner a few weekends ago with hubby and daughter at Holy Cow, Greenbelt Trinoma. This is a steak house but I was wondering why it became holy. :) Anyway, the food we had were good. I specially like the pizza rolls. It's a pretty heavy meal, a good substitute for rice as me and hubby are trying to curb our rice intake.


Holy Cow is quite small. I find the layout a little off as the huge counter was in the middle of the dining area. It's a big block of fixture getting in the customers' way.

The nacho corn chips below is quite colorful what with the all too red nachos. But it was fun munching them.

The boneless beef ribs is very appetizing to look at but grilled is not really for me. We have cut down on this too save for teeny weeny taste of it.

They have cow heads for murals and it looks a bit creepy at some point especially the restaurant has some yellow lighting for that intimate and cozy effect.

Here's the facade of the restaurant. It feels like a modern barn to me.

My daughter posing beside the Holy Cow.

Hmmm cakes at Jack's Loft which is right beside Holy Cow. On second thoughts, we've had a full dinner already. The pizza rolls are really filling. Next time, Jack.



Click here for more of weekend snapshots.

Bayantel DSL, Now What?

I have been a Bayantel DSL subscriber for more than a year now. I was very proud of my connection because unlike other DSL providers, I did not experience problems except for a few lags and disconnection issues. They were very tolerable. A few seconds once or twice a day during the first two weeks and then the performance improved. Their technicians were quick to respond. The customer service number was easy to contact.

But things are messy the past two months or so. See, a number of times we had no connection because their technician (or line men) pulled out our cable thinking ours is an inactive account already. Huh? I thought this is the strangest...or dumbest reason for having a disconnection issue.

Don't they have tags from among those cables up in the post or wherever these are connected? This is the reason why we are apprehensive whenever there are Bayantel line men within our area. They might accidentally pull out our connection again. The last time they said they already marked our cable that it is still active and we are not a delinquent subscriber, meaning we pay on time.

The past months, intermittent connection is a usual scenario. At times too I have just logged on but I cannot connect so I have to restart the modem. Only to be disconnected after a millisecond. That is not an exaggeration.

I went to the Bayantel Forum and checked what's happening. The complaints are the same - lag, disconnection, slow speed, customer service cannot be contacted. I spent my morning today calling their customer service several times to report my intermittent connection. The last call advised me that they already changed my profile end user.

Please, what does that mean. I asked the call center agent to explain to me what it means. She doesn't know either except that it should have improved my connection. I was also asking what the report found out, why am I always getting disconnected. There was no report about the why and wherefore of my DSL's predicament.

I sounded really exasperated but I was still in control as the call center agent was very polite and nice. I understand customer service representatives. I keep my patience when they act and sound nice and professional enough to deal with my feelings. It's the organization's responsibility to feed their front liners enough information to satisfy the customers. Don't treat your front liners like they
are robots that will only say the same things over and over again.

Bayantel DSL is performing badly. They only have one number for their customer service and it's not answered promptly. I don't have an idea what's the alternative to Bayantel because I read about the woes on other DSL providers. What is the lesser evil?

I guess the National Telecommunications Commission should take a very good look at these internet service providers.

The connection is down again as I was about to publish this. Based on my record for the past hours, this is the performance (or non-performance) of Bayantel DSL.

12:10 PM disconnected
12:14 PM reconnected
12:50 PM disconnected
1:05 PM reconnected
1:14 PM disconnected
1:17 PM reconnected
1:18 PM disconnected
1:20 PM reconnected
1:21 PM disconnected
1:43 PM reconnected
1:47 PM disconnected

And then I thought it was already publishing, it hanged. The light went a-blinking again at 1:53 PM.

Reconnected at 2:05 PM. Quick, I have to press the publish button!

My account above is the same pattern as I had from the moment I logged on at around 9:30 this morning. This is worse than being on a prepaid internet card.

Good thing I am used to multi-tasking. I finished The Zahir, have done my cooking on time, had lunch with my daughter, have started the laundry in the middle of all these Bayantel disconnections.

Dream

I woke up feeling glad it was all a dream. There are instances that the moment I wake up I have totally forgotten what my dream was all about. I know that I dreamed of something but I cannot remember exactly what. But some areas or details of this morning's dream I can still remember.

After freshening up I immediately looked for some websites for dream interpretations. I just want to know what could this be saying, if it's saying anything at all. I do believe dreams could have some significant meaning in our everyday lives. I wouldn't rely though on the generic explanations of dreams but it could be fun checking what they say.

I was laughing at myself because I found this dream interpretation online. Just type away your dream and submit and there you have it, the interpretation is there. But of course they only link some keywords to explain to you what they mean. So it's not really a credible interpretation. As we know, dreams are very subjective and is specific to the dreamer. It cannot just be interpreted.

I stopped looking for its meaning. Stretching my dream further and making my own conclusion - nothing is lost in the first place. Not finding them at once does not mean they are lost.

Steps upon steps, actually, I am almost there with what I'm looking for, with what I want. :)

Happy Together

My niece arrived last week from her year long stay in California. My daughter loves to be with her cousins so much. She visited her Ate J on her second day back in the Philippines. Good thing her Ate T was also there. The girls bonded almost the whole day.

I love these pictures. Oh, the vibrance of youth! Beautiful kids. :)

What Happens in Vegas

I am hyper today that I seem to do everything simultaneously. I'm laughing at myself. I just feel happy and I have to acknowledge that. :D

While I'm at it I'd like to post about a movie hubby and I watched the other day, What Happens in Vegas. What's good about these kinds of rom-com is you don't expect anything sensible to happen. Like watching an Ai-ai delas Alas movie perhaps. Just go with the flow and laugh at anything that tickle your bones.

I like Ashton Kutcher (playing Jack Fuller) when he's funny. I don't watch his movies where he attempts to be serious like in The Butterfly Effect. It's just not him. Give the guy a break...nah...he's a comedian. Sometimes I see Jack Black in him. He's the better version, physically, of Jack Black. A million times better that is, lol. Sometimes too it appears that he apes Black's facial expression...or could be they have the same form of mouth such that they resemble each other when they make face. I digress.

Cameron Diaz (as Joy) is the girl in the movie. I like her too because she's funny and sexy. I liked her a lot in There's Something About Mary and My Best Friend's Wedding. As with all other romantic comedy movies, the leading actors have their trusted side kicks to throw punch lines with. Ashton's buddy is the correspondent from The Daily Show, Rob Corddry. He still carries the same sarcasm in this movie.

The movie's concept is inane which is common for comedies. Let it be that way. Two depressed individuals went to Vegas for some good time and they ended up being intimate and got married while under the influence of alcohol which of course they regretted the following day so they decided to get a divorce. While arguing in front of a slot machine, Jack absent-mindedly inserts the quarter and voila...hits the $3M jackpot. And the quarter belongs to Joy. And now the story unfolds.

They try to have some memorable lines but prepare to roll your eyes when you hear them. An example is this, "I'd rather do nothing than do something I am not happy about". Let's get real people. Find something then than will make you happy and don't just throw everything away. Ooops, didn't I say not to take anything here seriously?

There is nothing which will make you laugh after you have finished watching the movie. Enjoy it while each scene presents itself to you. And then forget about it. That won't be hard. Lol.