04.06.12
Posted in Anything goes, Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, Movie commentary, family stuff at 5:57 pm by Administrator
It’s Black Saturday here right now. Again, I’m not used to this because we generally don’t celebrate this back in Los Angeles that I know of. Well, actually there are a lot of Catholics in Los Angeles, but since we’re not Catholic I’m not very familiar with this observed holiday.
Black Saturday here in the Philippines is also known as Holy Saturday when Jesus’ body was laid to rest. It’s recognized here as an official holiday, so that anyone working on this day is supposed to get double pay. But at least I think some stores will be open now (unlike yesterday, Good Friday), and likely the movie theaters. So I think that’s what I’ll do today–head across the street and see what’s playing. Last weekend mom and I watched The Hunger Games, which turned out to be entertaining. Mom usually doesn’t like to watch movies, but she enjoyed this one. One of the reasons I like to watch movies here is because they are so much cheaper–equivalent to about $4 as compared to about $9 back in Los Angeles.
Other than observing this day as the day Jesus was laid to rest, I don’t think a whole lot is done. Unlike on Good Friday when everyone seems to be out church hopping and praying all over the place, Black Saturday seems to be rather mild. I spoke to one of my aunts last night and asked her how her Good Friday was, and she said that she had gone to Quiapo for the Good Friday events. She said it was extremely crowded, and people were pushing her in all directions. Yikes! I’m glad mom and I stayed home. Instead we enjoyed a nice visit with another auntie and her daughter’s family.
Since tomorrow might be quiet as well because of Easter Sunday, I might try to catch up with uploading some pictures we took at Manila Ocean Park last Thursday. Hard to take good pictures of those marine animals as they don’t seem to like to hold still for the camera, ha! That didn’t stop me from trying, tho, and I think I managed to get some decent shots. I’ve also been managing to get a little reading in while doing my nightly foot soaks, so I do want to update on one of the books I’ve been reading regarding the Congo called Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, by Jason K. Stearns. It seems to be a very good book and quite enlightening for anyone wanting to understand some of the complexities of the wars that have been ravaging their people.
Marlakins
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04.05.12
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia at 6:17 pm by Administrator
Since my blog is based out of the U.S., a post regarding Good Friday may look early. But since I’m here in the Philippines, it is actually Friday now instead of Thursday since we’re about a day ahead of the U.S.
Easter is a big event in the U.S., but I think it’s even bigger here in the Philippines. For example, in the U.S. a lot of people go to church and maybe watch passion plays. Here, they call the run up to Easter “holy week,” and many businesses are closed starting Thursday and even taking half day on Wednesday. Then in various provinces they have those cross carrying recreations and self-inflicted flagellation. Some recreations even nail people to a cross! Ack! But I’m told those are only done in the provinces, not the big cities like Metro Manila. But carrying the cross seems to be practiced here from what we saw last night, which is known as Maude Thursday. Here’s a pic of what was going on right here on Fort Bonafacio High Street.
And this is a shot of what the lines looked like to carry these crosses.
Practically all of the stores were closed in the Fort Serendra area. I think only a handful of places were open like ClawDaddy’s and the restaurant next to it on the left, plus that other Italian restaurant to the right (I forget the name), Figaro, and Fully Booked. Everything else looked closed. But there were still tons of people out there lining up to carry these crosses, and there were also those “cross stations” where they describe how Jesus fell during what stage and who helped him, etc.
It’s interesting being here this time of the year. My Dad used to say he wanted to come back here during the Christmas season because it’s so much more festive here in the Philippines than in the U.S. I can see why. People are very religious here whether you agree or not with their religious beliefs. People tend to be outdoors more here and they lavishly celebrate many occasions, rich or poor.
Marlakins
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04.01.12
Posted in Playing the Tourist, family stuff, food and restaurants at 1:32 am by Administrator
After we visited Batangas, we stopped off for lunch in Tagaytay. This will be about my 4th time going to Tagaytay, but the first time stopping off at Leslie’s.
I know you can’t see it from the picture, but it was actually raining. That’s why I have that red scarf on my head. My cousin didn’t want my head to get wet as she was concerned I might catch cold. How sweet, huh?
So this is what it looks like in the dining area of Leslie’s.
The restaurant has a view of the Taal Volcano, but it was a cloudy and rainy day, so our view would come in and out depending upon the clouds. So this is what we saw that day.
The hole in the ground with the railing is the entrance way to the lower dining area, which was closed due to the weather. While I’m mentioning the weather I thought I’d comment that it has been unseasonably wet here. I was actually surprised at how cold it was in Tagaytay! This time of year is normally drier and hot. Lately it has been off and on hot and cool and rainy. Once it rains heavy humidity follows, wow. . . At times this view was completely obliterated, so I had to take several shots. This was around 1 to 2PM. So we ran out to try to catch the volcano as the clouds passed over.
Just for fun we ran out to the kubo huts to see what it was like there. If the weather had been good, we could have eaten in one of these, but it was too wet, wah.
And since bathrooms are a very important place for travelers, I had to take a pic of their sink, ha!
Okay, the things people come up with, huh? The restaurant was a sort of hodge-podge of decor–i.e. native tables and chairs, railroad tracks that lead into the bathrooms, and the pictured ceramic sink with the, umm, well pump for a faucet? lol At least the water coming out looked clean. . .
Afterward we headed back to Manila, but first stopped off at Rowena’s. I think I found the buko pie place this time. It was yummy! Laguna (the area where we were) is supposedly known for their buko pies (coconut pies). Rowena’s was busy and the pies were flying out of there like hotcakes.
Marlakins
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03.30.12
Posted in Playing the Tourist, gardening at 5:24 am by Administrator
To continue with the pictures from Caleruega, at the end of the walkway just beyond the retreat cottages was the little church building. Here we are standing in front.
There was actually a service in progress, so I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of the church. It was rather small with a lot of stained glass. The pews were also very full of surprisingly young people. Unless all the oldies dyed their hair black, heheheh. So we just wandered around the garden. Here’s one of the views just off to the side of the church.
At the base of the statue below was a plant mounted on the stones with what looked like coconut husks and palm leaves, I think.
It’s nice to get ideas from these gardens for ways to decorate our own backyard. There were lots of trees with orchids mounted like this to the trunks of the trees. There are so many coconuts around here that it’s no wonder that they are used for potting and mounting plants along the trees.
Off to the side of this area is yet another pathway. We passed this along the way.
Apparently they sell koi here, and just across the way was their koi pond or rather ponds (their pond was quite extensive). Here’s a pic of mom by one of the ponds.
If you looked down from here you’d see something like this.
Just a little farther away was a worm farm. Not sure what they used the worms for whether it was for fertilizing the garden or for feeding the fish or both or whatever.
Farther up from here was a gate that was closed, so we turned around and headed back. Supposedly there is a place that one can hike to farther out, but maybe it was closed that day.
That about sums up our day at Batangas. I’ll try to get to the Tagaytay pictures next post.
Marlakins
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03.29.12
Posted in Playing the Tourist, gardening at 6:56 pm by Administrator
This was my first trip to Batangas. I was going to make this post for both Batangas and Tagaytay, but I have too many pictures, so decided to split them up. But we did go to both Batangas and Tagaytay on the same day. I didn’t realize that Batangas was just right next to Tagaytay. I had often wondered what it was like in Batangas because that’s where my uncle kept his horses. Well yesterday I got a glimpse.
When Brian and I visited the Isle of Man several years ago, we were amused with all the sheep on the side of the roads. Well, here in Batangas, there were cows on the side of the road. Here’s a pic of my cousin and me with a cow in the background.
I tried to get a shot of the view, but seems mom got a pic of us more than the view, ha!
We visited a Church/retreat called Caleruega in Batangas. Here’s the gang in front of the entrance.
This is a picture inside the building with mom, my uncle, and my cousin.
The grounds of the retreat was beautiful as usual. I love the way many of the gardens are kept in the Philippines.
While I am familiar with many of the plants which are similar to the ones in California, there are some that are different. I love to take pictures of them and have actually been collecting quite a few that I still have not posted on my blog. So before these get buried in the avalanche of pictures, here’s a couple that I took yesterday.
I really loved the color of the berries.
These trees were also a bit unusual.
I also love to get ideas from the gardens such as how they mount small pots along wood logs.
Here’s a closer look at how it’s done.
Well, I’m about out of time for the moment, so will try to continue my post on Batangas later.
TTFN
Marlakins
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03.26.12
Posted in family stuff at 11:25 pm by Administrator
So I thought Marissa might like to see some of the changes going on in her hood. This is a pic of a new shop called Bread Talk that is now where the Mini Mart used to be.
Filipinos love bread, so I’m thinking this shop should do really well here. It’s usually pretty crowded and they really know how to make their offerings look attractive and fun. I’m particularly drawn to these.
And these.
Then on the other side they opened the street way in the back with more shops. Here’s a pic of mom with the new area opened up.
And yes, there are still the usual dog lovers around Serendra.
We would never get away in Los Angeles driving a motorcycle with flip flops and a dog. Speaking of dogs, they had a small dog show last weekend on Bonifacio High Street. Unfortunately I didn’t know they were going to have the show, so I didn’t bring my camera. So no shots of the cute pups. Although I did take a shot of these two little guys while I was out walking one day.
I know some of you have already seen these types of pet get ups. But here they seem to be quite rampant–i.e. dogs with fancy haircuts, diapers, shoes. . . And no mutts. Too stuck up for mutts around here, I guess. . .
So while I’m at it, the second pool area looks like it’s complete and fully operational. I took a pic of it during one of our night walks.
And now swinging the camera to the left.
And finally a pic of Mom after one of her walks. Must check text messages for any chismis. . .
I think Marissa’s pool area is better lighted during the evening.
That’s it for now. Tomorrow we’re scheduled to meet with the 49ers for lunch at a place called the Korean Village, then Thurs we’re headed off for Tagaytay.
Toodles til then!
Marlakins
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03.21.12
Posted in family stuff, food and restaurants at 12:26 am by Administrator
It’s really hard to imagine that there’s a recession going on when everywhere we go there is food, food galore. Today we had lunch at Vikings at MOA (Mall of Asia for those of you who aren’t familiar with MOA), which is a buffet comparable to the hotel buffets here. Granted, it’s not as good, but pretty good considering the price is only a fraction of that of hotel buffets. And like hotel buffets, there’s food everywhere! The main difference is the foot traffic (the designer could have made more room for people), some of the dishes could have been tastier, but many of them were quite good, so that made up for it. Here we are at lunch there.
For anyone interested in trying Vikings out, here’s what some of their spreads look like.
This is obviously the sushi section. There was another Japanese section which served tempura all the way on the other side of the room. To the left of this spread was a Chinese section for various dumplings and stir fries. There was an American section, a salad bar, cheese and bread bar, various appetizers, etc. Lots and lots of food. No way one could taste all of it.
Here’s another picture of another part of their spread.
There were also desserts toward the back of the room. Again the desserts were okay. Not as many and not as tasty as the hotel buffets like Spirals or Circles, etc., but good enough particularly in light of the price.
All in all, I’d say it’s worth going back.
Marlakins
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03.18.12
Posted in food and restaurants at 6:15 am by Administrator
I had an extra serving of the best mung bean soup for you.
I still have to learn how Abe’s make it so yummy. The Pampangans sure know how to cook.
Marlakins
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03.17.12
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:17 am by Administrator
It was too shocking to even think of taking any pictures today. When I first arrived in the Pines around 2006, the traffic was shocking. It actually took me about two years to get used to seeing how drivers and pedestrians coexisted in a very precarious manor. I mean cars, jeepneys, tricycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians all seem to occupy the same space and didn’t seem to follow any rules here. The congested traffic was one thing, but the proximity of pedestrians to moving vehicles was a bit nerve racking. It was a shock for me to see helmet-less kids riding on the laps of motorcyclists.
By my third return to the Pines, I was starting to get used to this type of traffic. Babies and toddlers riding on motorcycles started to just look ordinary. My squeamishness managed to fade into the recesses of my consciousness. . . until today.
We were standing outside in front of Uncle Ci’s house waiting for our ride when all of a sudden a woman with a child (approx 2 years old) riding a scooter made a sharp U-turn and crashed right in front of us! OH MY GOSH!!!! The sound of the scooter crashing and the child screaming was almost more than I could bear. The child hit the asphalt with the mom landing on top of her. I am shaking just remembering it all. The mom jumped up and grabbed her screaming daughter, whose face as all scratched up on the left side. As the mom grabbed her daughter trying to comfort her screaming, I could see a large welt forming on the mom’s head as well. It looked like if it swelled up much more it might burst. Oh my gosh. Cousin Merced had the presence of mind to run into her restaurant to grab some ice and water. The whole incident was horrifying. Just when I thought that maybe I could try driving here in the Pines, I have now been shell-shocked. No thank you. It’s not happening. Too many pedestrians too close to the cars. Too many cyclists wearing shorts and flip flops with no helmets. Today it was just a little too hard to look at it.
Our ride arrived, so we took off. Maybe later I’ll hear the news of what happened to mother and daughter later. I’m sure they’ll both be very sore tomorrow, but at least both were conscious and hopefully more shook up than injured. Scraped skin, yes, but hopefully nothing was broken. I had heard these types of stories, but this is the first time I have witnessed one. To see a small child on a scooter crash like that was completely shocking.
Marlakins
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03.16.12
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:07 pm by Administrator
Because I love you. . .
Mom and I split one order. So this is a pic of half the order.
Marlakins 
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