Raising a family, making a home.
It’s Christmas time again in Starbucks! Finally saw the 2012 planner, and I’m happy that there are more sheets now dedicated for notes. I also like that it’s smaller than the current planner.
Started my morning extra early today, and so I found an excuse to treat myself to my first Toffee Nut Latte of the season. Yay!
*Chumsy*
A friend recently gave me the opportunity of a lifetime – to get published.
Becoming a writer has always been my lifelong dream. I believe that we all have a million and one stories to tell, and all we need to do is find our medium. Some draw, others paint, many speak, I write. To me, life makes sense in front of a white screen with a flashing cursor, or with a blank sheet or paper and a good pen.
With a little encouragement form loved ones, and a particularly persistent push from my sister Rocky, I set out to follow my writing dreams. I started with a little bit of content writing, discovered that I really enjoy continuity writing specially for live events, and found copywriting to be immensely challenging but extremely rewarding. The constant writing allowed me to gain confidence in myself and in my work. It’s true that practice makes perfect. This is one of the biggest reasons why I decided to return to blogging. I figured nothing would give me a better opportunity to constantly write than the knowledge that someone is reading, and that’s exactly what blogging does for me. As my page view count goes up, so does my drive to keep on writing. Maybe people just happen to pass by the page, some stumble upon it by accident, some will choose to stay and read, others will be back again. I know that I can tell my stories to all of these people, and that is just wonderful. I want to keep them coming back so I need to keep writing. And I need to write well.
So now I’ve been given an opportunity to go to the next level, to get published. In a real magazine. I’m so excited about this and I hope my article makes the cut. If I do get published, I promise that my blog readers will be the first to know. After all, these are the guys who stick with me and my words day by day. Whether or not I make it, I’m just happy for the chance to write. And I will be proud of myself, no matter what the outcome, for simply giving it my best SHOT!
My Halloween celebration began last October 30 with back to back events at Festival Supermall and Westgate Center. At the end of that day I was simply exhausted and craving for comfort food. The boys and I decided to have dinner at Whistlestop, which opened its doors to Westgate customers just a few weeks ago.
Whistlestop has actually been around since the 70’s. It closed shop sometime in 2005, and just recently reopened in Makati with a new look. Many hold this place close to their hearts like my mom who recalls good times spent at Whistlestop, which was one of the few restaurants open 24/7 back in the day. Meanwhile, I think I had only eaten there once before, and I can’t even remember if I enjoyed the food or not.
The boys went into the restaurant a few minutes before I did, as we were still packing up after the Magical Halloween event. When I arrived they had already placed their orders – Nasi Goreng for Mr C and a Bacon Cheeseburger for the kiddo. They also ordered Mozzarella Sticks as an appetizer. After a quick scan of the menu, I decided on Boneless Buffalo Chicken Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing. I was surprised that it took quite a while for our food to arrive since there was only one other family dining at the same time as we were. Luckily, the little guy got a prize at the event earlier and that kept him occupied while waiting.
The mozzarella sticks arrived first, and they weren’t exactly what I was expecting. I didn’t read the description of the dish on the menu, so I was thinking they would be breaded and fried. Instead, we were served a stack of cheese spring rolls with what I think might have been cilantro (yes, I know I should have checked the menu). I really loved the marinara sauce that came with the dish. It was tangy and just a little bit spicy, absolutely perfect with the cheese sticks.
The little boy’s burger and Mr C’s Nasi Goreng followed a little after the appetizer. The servings were pretty big, definitely worth the price. I didn’t get to try the burger, but since Tristan was only able to finish half of it, I’m guessing it’s pretty heavy. We actually took home the uneaten half and had my brother eat it. He said it reminded him of a thicker, denser Tropical Hut Hamburger, which means it’s pretty good in a Pinoy burger kind of way.
The hubs seemed to enjoy his Nasi Goreng judging from his clean plate at the end of our meal, and there was quite a lot of it at the start. I took a bite and found that it was pretty good but nothing extraordinary. My last encounter with Nasi Goreng was during our honeymoon staycation at Sofitel last September, and that is still by far the tastiest bagoong rice I have ever had.
While waiting for my meal I decided to order a glass of Iced Tea with Mango Juice, which sounded weird at first but was actually really good and refreshing. Finally my food arrived, and it was a good thing that it was worth the wait. The chicken was tender and really tasty, and the serving was pretty big. The bleu cheese dressing was a perfect match, though at PHP 50.00 it was a pretty pricey add-on.
There was more than enough food for three people on our table, and as expected we had a lot leftover for takeout. We were all full after such a big meal, but since there’s always room for dessert, I decided to stop by UCC before heading home to grab a piece of my favorite Red Velvet Cake to go.
There were some other interesting items on the Whistlestop menu, and I am definitely looking forward to coming back to give them all a try.
Whistlestop Restaurant and Bar
Westgate Center, Filinvest City
Alabang, Muntinlupa
(+632) 771-1706
UCC Coffee Café, Westgate
Unit C 801-802 Westgate Center, Filinvest City
Alabang, Muntinlupa
(+632) 771-1550, (+632) 771-1549
After our high school reunion last Saturday, Mr C and I stopped by Army Navy for a very late dinner. We were both super hungry, but decided to drive back to Alabang before stopping to eat in case we got sleepy once our bellies were full. This proved to be a good idea, as our yummy midnight meal really hit the spot, and we were glad to be within a few minutes from home after we had eaten.
I’m glad that Army Navy is open 24hours. While I usually try to avoid eating really late at night because it means a morning tummy ache for me, I was just too hungry to even think about skipping dinner since I didn’t have anything to eat at the party. We ended up waiting a bit for our food to arrive, and decided to play with the camera to pass the time. [Read more…] about Awesomesauce Burritos at Army Navy
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| Mr & Mrs C, 10 years later 🙂 |
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| Our little guy’s Godfather JC and Mr C |
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| With Monix, our honorary batch mate |
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| With Michelle and Clarissa, whom I haven’t seen in ages, plus Mr C and Apple |
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| All girls |
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| Standing in front of the aircon coz it started to get really warm once the room became crowded |
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| With the long-lost Dickie Puno and the girls |
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| Dizzy Jojo and Mr C |
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| Me and Mr C with Rye |
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| Me and Rye |
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| Shot! |
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| With Kris and Apple |
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| KD, Me and Aggie |
Tis the season for designer coffee! Each year I look forward to the holiday season because it gives me an excuse to spend for all the fancy coffee drinks I love so much in exchange for a brand new planner. This began when I got my first Starbucks Planner back in college, and since then I’ve willingly spent a whole lot of hard earned cash on all sorts of Christmas drinks and froofy coffee shop beverages once the -ber months came around.
This year I came across the 2012 Seattle’s Best journal first because it came out about a month earlier than the Starbucks Planner’s scheduled release. I’ve always been a Starbucks girl because I like their coffee better, but Seattle’s Best’s yummy new holiday drinks are amazingly good! More bad news for Starbucks, I completely fell in love with SBC’s journal. It has nice ruled pages and lotsa coupons in between the sheets. It’s refillable too, so you can definitely reuse it once all the pages have been written on. Plus they come in four pretty colors!
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| SBC’s Coffee Cream Pie Hot Mocha |
So far I’ve tried three out of the four holiday drinks of SBC – the returning Cookies and Mint, Coffee Hazelnut and Coffee Cream Pie. I’ve yet to try them ice blended, since the hot versions appeals to me more. Three stickers in a week is a pretty good head start. I wonder though how long my wallet can sustain this indulgence given all the other things I need to pay for before the year ends. I just hope it lasts long enough to complete all stickers needed.
Today I finally came across the 2012 Starbucks planner. Basing it on the photo alone, I think I like the SBC journal better. But I can totally justify getting both since one will serve as my notebook, and the other my planner for the year. It seems a bit extravagant, but at least I’m sure to enjoy my holiday coffee buzz. Working in a mall means I have every opportunity to collect stickers too, so I’d have to have extreme self control to stay away. Besides, it looks as if I’ve already convinced myself to go for it. So let the holiday sticker craze begin!
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| Photo from Unbox.ph |
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Seattle’s Best Coffee
3L Chef’s Avenue Festival Supermall
Filinvest, Alabang, Muntinlupa
+632 7710628
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