The Red Light District

I’ve been experiencing bouts of insomnia lately. It started right after my hellweek at work.

Screwed up my body clock.

He may have the “ER Factor” (Construction workER, drivER, etc etc) that some people may find (although I can’t imagine how) appealing, but this guy is a total bonehead. What the hell was up with that derogatory comment about Rica being a “She-man”??

Geez. I know, I know. I might be too affected, but guys like him send me on a rage. So what if he sold friggin balut before? Asswipe!

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On a related note, you can really feel the tension the whole “bagyo” gimik caused. Territorial issues much? :p

Today I experienced Halo Halo as I’ve never experienced it before.

At the spa!

Went to Dusit Thani Manila’s Devarana Spa to try their Halo Halo Body Scrub. It was heaven. It’s a body scrub that’s inspired by the traditional pinoy halo halo—it’s a (sweet!) concoction that mixes together sweet corn, red beans, banana, coconut and the exotic scents of vanilla. Kulang na lang leche flan and ube ice cream! Mwehehe.

After the spa, my managing ed and I had dinner at Basix, Dusit’s buffet restaurant (which came as a surprise) where there were other sweet treats as well. Edible ones this time—

Speaking of surprises, I got a blast from the past.

Now all my friends in college (at least the ones close to me) knew I had this huge crush on this basketball player. Yes, I had my fair share of UAAP groupie days. My target then was Rainier Sison. And today I saw him having dinner at Basix with, I’m guessing, his officemates. He looks so different. Still cute, yes, but he looks more geeky now. Ehehe.

You would think that that would be the highlight of my day, but no.

I’ve been looking for a cheap set of makeup brushes (leather pouch included) and I actually found one a few weeks back but didn’t have money so I didn’t buy it. And then last week I got free P2K worth of GCs from The Body Shop. I decided to drop by the store today to check out their merchandise, and what do you know—they have a special edition brush set (with a really cute bamboo pouch to boot!) worth P1995 and there was only one stock left.  Needless to say, I grabbed the opportunity. Freebies are the best.

Check out my sweet little package:

It has five basic makeup brushes. This was a real steal. The brushes at The Body Shop are usually worth P895 each.

I love the midnight blue satin lining

Oh and earlier today, I figured since I’ll be sticking around in this industry for quite a while, I got myself a new Sony digital recorder. I love it. It can be connected to my laptop via USB and it has 2GB worth of memory—that’s roughly 535 hours. And it moonlights as an FM radio and MP3 player too. But I have my iPod for that. But still, it’ll come in handy!

I love today! Sweetness!

I just seriously adore their tabletops I had to take another photo and post it here for the, I think, third or fourth time. Hehe. Z and I had dinner there before having dessert at that “Fancy” desserts place.

We always end up ordering the same thing—his is the baby back ribs, and mine the herb chicken. The only thing we order differently each time is the dessert. Tonight it was chocolate chip cookies for takeout.

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I’ve had an easy past few days and I’m enjoying it. Last week really was hell—this time it was actually me who submitted my article last. Hehe. I think I resisted writing about B & M’s relationship because, well, I’ve been such a commitment-phobe for the longest time and they represent that “place” (read: marital bliss) which I thought I wasn’t ready for yet.

Tonight was rather interesting—after dinner with Z, I went to Tricia’s apartment where she and Bea were doing absolutely nothing at all. So for the heck of it, Trish brought out her soul cards. Now I used to be really skeptical about new age stuff like reading tarot cards, but soul cards are actually quite okay. They don’t claim to tell the future or anything, but they do offer guidance when it comes to the “space” your soul is in at the moment. And tonight I got to read mine.

It was freakishly accurate. The three cards I managed to pick from the deck hit home. As in the current issues I’ve been facing lately, they were right there in my chosen three.

The one that represented the past showed Abundantia—infinite supply. Something I’ve been having difficulty accepting into my life. I’ve always thought I had to look out for myself because nobody else was “supposed” to do it. Turns out there is also merit in accepting gifts, blessings into your life. And this I learned the lesson of a few days ago.

The “present” card showed Healing. That I have the power to heal people, and they have the power to heal me. Which, of course, did not fail to give me goosebumps because of  a conversation I had with Z last night.

And then the future card showed independence. It talked of a balance in social interaction and solitude.

The last one, which accidentally dropped out of the deck (you’re supposed to place cards like these beside the other three), talked of guidance. It said that my future is safe and secure, and that the worst is over. And that I should stop with the uncertainty already because guidance is here.

Sigh :’)

I know I probably sound cryptic (and weird) but the whole thing just gave me goosebumps. I just identified a lot with the cards that showed up and I think it just told me that it’s time to face what I’ve been avoiding to acknowledge ever since last year.

Which is that I’ve actually matured. Hahaha. Well that, among other things.

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Oh, and funny thing—one of the cards advised I needed to get my butt to the gym. Wahaha. Again, something I’ve been avoiding. Jeebus!

Here now at Il Terrazzo in Tomas Morato having dessert with Z.

We’re at this place called “Fancy” and they have a really photogenic flourless chocolate cake.

In the words of my Tita Aida: “Izzz good!”

Got to check out the new Marriott hotel in Newport City (in front of NAIA Terminal 3) and the place is awesome. The first thing that caught my attention was the lights at the lobby bar.

They’re so pretty. It makes you feel like you’re in a magical place—away from Manila traffic, pollution, politics, etc etc.

Here’s a photo of its reflection on the coffee table:

We were given the grand tour by the publicist. I love the wall panels here:

They really went out of their way to make the place as grand as possible.

And the food…the food is really yummy. We got to try the Marriott Cafe’s buffet where they featured five cuisines—Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Western, plus an appetizer bar and an impressive dessert counter.

Here are some grill-to-order items from the Western counter. Mostly seafood—

They had really savory starters, which sat well with me because I usually just skip the appetizers and head on straight for the entrees. This time though, I had to pry myself away from the appetizers.

They have really good ebi tempura, too.

And the dessert has much variety—they have filipino favorites and at least four different flavors of panna cotta, which drove me delirious because that is my absolutest favorite dessert. I tried all flavors but wasn’t able to finish all of it because hello, who finishes four panna cottas in one sitting?? *guilty*

I also had to make room for these bite-sized raspberry cheesecakes, and good thing because they were really delicious.

Before Marriott, I also got to eat at Paseo Uno in Mandarin Oriental Manila. Hands down, I don’t have photos but that place has the best dessert selection evaaar. I love love loved the apricot crumble. It was heaven in the mouth. I wanted to get seconds but, well, at the rate I am eating, I’ll probably balloon up after Christmas is over.

Seriously the rate I am eating is, well, alarming. Hehehe. But I’m enjoying it. I just dread the whole going-back-to-the-gym-to-lose-all-the-weight-gained part. Why must there be tradeoffs for everything?

Sigh.

I miss his crazy antics.

Turns out sometimes it comes back to haunt you.

Which is why I’ll just do what I did back in high school—dedma.

There’s a reason why our photographer Brian is enthralled with this woman from our shoot:

She writes well…

…backwards!

It’s amazing. She later told us that this was actually common among kaliwetes (left-handed peeps), but it was the first time Bri and I saw something like that so we were acting like little kids amazed by fireworks on New Year. Haha.

Speaking of amazing, this is amazingly cute:

Barbie’s daughter Stina applying makeup on our makeup artist Lindsay’s face! She’s so adorable. We had a shoot at their house and we were all smitten with her. Cutie cutie.