Mrs. Noemi Dado of Touched By An Angel blog informed me that Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL) will be offering a free workshop on creative writing, photography, and videography on the 24th of June at their branch in Bonifacio High Street. I signed up for the workshop on June 18. On the day of the event, I learned that my family will entertain our balikbayan relative that night at Serendra. I haven’t seen my Aunt Rose for years so I decided to prioritize family even though I’ve always been a big fan of CBTL. When we got to High Street, my other relatives weren’t there yet so I decided to drop by the workshop. I informed the girl with the sign up sheet that I wouldn’t be able to stay long but she said I should still fill up her sheet. After doing that, I went inside and saw some people I know from my days working for ABS-CBN. We chatted a bit since the workshop hasn’t started yet. I also greeted some bloggers I know. When the workshop was about to begin, I got a call from my mom and she told me that I should go to Conti’s since they’re eating already. I had to leave the event and join the relatives.

I’m sure the event was a success. My relatives and I passed by CBTL a couple of times and I saw that the workshop attendees were busy doing their tasks. I know I missed out by not going to the workshop but CBTL is still my favorite. Especially their “The Ultimate” - mocha and no whipped cream please. To make up for it, some of my college friends and I had a spontaneous reunion last June 25 and we went to CBTL Eastwood.

It was a fun night. I missed my college friends. It was a night of nostalgia and catching up on each others’ lives.

Friday night I met up with Phoebe at Shangri-la so we can dine at Cibo. I miss the food there and I ordered my usual. Telefono with spaghettini and the Crostini with the Spinach dip. Did I spell that correctly? Phoebe ordered her usual as well which is Spaghetti Alfonso (I think). Basta it tasted good. We’re kind of lactose intolerant though and our stomachs were rumbling after the cream-based pastas.

Last night I had another Italian dinner at Amici. It was my first time there and I was surprised that it’s a self-service restaurant. The place was packed but Phoebe and I got a table easily. I forgot what she ordered. I wasn’t able to taste it because she ate it all so fast. That girl has a really big appetite. I got Spaghetti Vongoli something something. Very long name but I didn’t like it much. It also took a loooong time to arrive so I just lapped up the pizza we shared. It was the Al Funghi pizza (my spelling sucks, I know!) and it was really good. I think Amici’s specialty is their pizzas. Jenny caught up with us and we indulged in their toe-curling gelatos and profiteroles. I especially loved the sans rival gelato and ended up buying 1 kilo of it to take home. I think the price is reasonable for P450.

Yummy pizza!

Scrumptious profiteroles

After Amici, we hung out at our usual Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Only Phoebe ordered because Jenny and I were so full but usually I order The Ultimate mocha there. Since I bought that gelato from Amici, I asked the staff if they can store it in their refrigerator and they were so nice enough to accomodate me. We spent hours there just talking about different things. Phoebe showed me her new Sony Ericsson W960i and I’m now more tempted to get one too. We used the free wifi there and their internet was fast. I’m not sure if it’s because of the phone or just the ISP in the cafe. We made plans of going to Fort Ilocandia soon. If I’m going to buy a W960i, I won’t have enough money for the vacation so now I’m having second thoughts about the trip. Is the phone more worth it or Fort Ilocandia which I’ve never been to? We talked about so many things from American Idol contestants (I don’t watch it anymore) to US politics. Fun times. I haven’t gone out for ages because of the damn PCOS so last night was a good catch-up for us three.

I went to the 12th Hot Air Balloon Fiesta last Sunday with Phoebe, Jef, Egg, Mark, Patrick, Anthon, Loreyn, Jet, Kate, and our driver Arman. Got sunburned and drained but twas worth it all even if I have to spend a day recuperating. I didn’t have any sleep the night before because my friends came over early and we left at 3am. I wanted to kick them out but it was already too late. Hehe. Click the photo below to get to the album.

It’s my birthday today. Ugh. The big 3-Oh. I hate that number. I don’t feel that old yet and my friend said I don’t look 30 so that’s good. Still, I don’t feel like celebrating. I want to save money and there’s really nothing to celebrate.

This birthday isn’t too depressing compared to last year’s. I feel loved now especially since I reconnected with old friends. Of course, it’s not like before when we were younger and have the energy to stay out all night and drink too much booze. I don’t even drink liquor anymore.

A friend was inviting me earlier to go to Baguio this weekend. Maybe going there would do me good but I’m too lazy. I don’t want to travel 4 or more hours just to play cards with them. Besides, they’re all boys and I’ll just be reaffirming my role as one of the boys. That has got to stop but that’s always the case with almost all my male friends. Tsk. Not that I’m interested in any of them in THAT way. Yuck! It’s just depressing when I’m never seen as an object of affection or whatever.  So yeah, one of my birthday wishes is to finally have a love life. I’m not raising my hopes up though.

I’m pining for a Nintendo Wii. It’s not too expensive but I still have a long way to go before I can save up for one. Maybe I can ask mom to give me one for my birthday.

I was in Serendra and Bonifacio High Street last Friday with Phoebe. We had supper at Zao which is a Vietnamese restaurant beside Conti’s. The food is good but expensive. Ugh. Spend spend spend. Jenny caught up with us as we were about to finish eating. After paying the bill, we headed to Fully Booked. I wanted to go just to buy Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which I thought I already have. I’m reading all the books in the series now and when I read that book, I remembered that I only borrowed my friend’s copy.

So anyway, we were at Fully Booked and I went to the manga section. I was looking for guro manga even if I doubt that FB sells them. Well they don’t. But what I saw made me shout out to my friends. They have NANA! I guess a lot of people buy the series since only volumes 1, 3, and 6 were there. So I got those three volumes and mulled over buying The Drifting Classroom series. I decided that could wait so I went to the second level to get the Harry Potter book. It was in the sci-fi section so when I was checking out the other books, I was astonished to find Francesca Lia Block titles. Some of them I still don’t have in my collection. So I got the following:

• Psyche In A Dress
• Ruby: A Novel
• Wasteland

We hung out at the Starbucks (but didn’t buy anything) until FB closed then we headed to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Until that, too, closed.  I think that was around 1:30 AM.

We left Serendra then headed to my house where Phoebe left her car. She wanted to see Yasu so when we got there, we went to my room and babbled some more. Phoebe has the newest Canon camera (not sure if it’s an ixus) and it has a cool feature which takes 10 shots using its timer. We had fun posing and goofing around. We were noisy and the racket we made woke up mom. It was really fun though. They left around 4 AM.

Eh. I haven’t written here for awhile. Let’s see. I’ve been hot-headed lately. I don’t know why but petty annoyances make me flare up. I also think I’m becoming dumber. I suspect it has something to do with my medications. One of which is Lithium which I’ve been taking for almost a month now but scares the hell out of me. Really scary shit. I don’t think it’s helping me much either but I’ll see after a couple more weeks. If after that I’m still depressed, I have to start from scratch again. I really don’t want to try all sorts of medications again but no choice really unless I want to remain like this.  Enough about this.

I sell stuff on multiply. I’m not successful since I still have a lot of unsold items. I might be one of the surliest sellers there so I’m not surprised that I hardly sell anything. Hehe.

Phoebe got back last Saturday. She brought me a San-X Rellakuma plushy because she couldn’t find a Nyanko. Waaah. She also gave me a nice Hello Kitty lolita plastic case. I’ll try to take a photo of it tonight. My favorite is the plastic umbrella she gave me. I had to beg her to give me one instead of another Rellakuma bear. So now I have one of those transparent umbrellas I keep on seeing in doramas. Yay! I love it! I’ll use it soon.

We weren’t able to go out Saturday night since I was pooped so we did on Sunday. We went to Greenbelt to watch Ratatoille and we saw Derek Ramsey. What a hottie! I wanted to talk to him but I got all shy. Blech I don’t want to be a fan girl but I watch Ysabella because he’s there. Sometimes I disgust myself. Ha ha.

Enough rambling for now. Back to work.

I just got home an hour ago. I was out with Phoebe and we went to Serendra and Greenbelt.

Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street is now open. However, it’s still it it’s soft opening stage so the books are a bit limited. I didn’t find any Graphics or Fashion trade books yet. Starbucks will have a small cafe inside the Fully Booked building. I wish it was Coffee Bean though.

Another new store in Bonifacio High Street is Philosophy which mostly sells nice tees for men.

When we got to Greenbelt a bit past 12AM, some of the restaurants have closed. We went to Bizu but their kitchen is already closed so all we can order are desserts. We didn’t feel like getting desserts there so we moved to Cafe Breton. I tried their Chicken Run sandwich and I really liked it. It’s relatively cheap. An order costs P125 and is filling enough for 1 person.

I like hangoung out with Phoebe because we get to talk about anything and everything. She’s a friend since my UP days. Tonight our topics ranged from metaphysics to Global Warming, high school friends to matters of the heart. Very refreshing. Conversations with her are a joy.

I had a great time tonight with Jenny and my new friend Malaine. I invited them to come with me to today’s fashion shows because the owner of FIP gave me an invite to his fashion show and he told us to bring friends. We were at the Rockwell Tent a little after 3 pm which the invite said the show would start. Good thing it started late though. For the first show, we were given good seats. Four designers presented their works and I liked Shanon Pamaong’s designs (he’s the one who gave me the invite). The other designers’ works were okay. After that show, I asked my teacher (John Herrera) if I could watch his show. He said I could but the show would start at 7PM pa.

We had more than an hour to kill time so we went to Sugar House because I wanted to eat Turtle Pie. Unfortunately, they didn’t have it. Maybe they ran out. Whatever. Each of us ordered 3 cakes. I wasn’t able to finish mine because I didn’t like my cake much. Boo! After paying, we just window shopped since we didn’t have shopping money.

A little after 5:30, we went back to the tent and just took photos of ourselves while chit chatting. It was fun.

Before 7, we got good seats again but the place was packed. Other people had to stand during the fashion show. Lucky us. The night’s designers belong to the Young Designers Guild. I loved my teacher’s creations! He’s my idol now! Haaay. Brilliant guy. I think there were 13 designers but the whole show lasted for only 30 minutes if I’m not mistaken. It was so fast. But I am inspired again. I want to be invited to join YDG someday.

I want to join Fashion Week some day. I will really study hard and I will persevere.