(Happy New Year's Eve) Ditzy and Drowsy

A New Year's Eve that's ditzy and drowsy? Yes definitely.

I seem to have fallen into a drowsy New Year's Eve, my body trying to decide between falling asleep, coping with a terrible headache and barfing all at the same time. Its such a shame too, since we had a nice New Year's Eve dinner at one of the nice Japanese restaurants downstairs from our place, which was serving a pretty nice selection of Japanese dishes in an eat all you can format.. except that instead of having all the selection in front of you in a long table, you get this nice checklist where you pick out the stuff you want to eat, and they cook it fresh and have it delivered to your table.

Since I was in a half barfing mode, I passed off the all-you-can-eat option and decided to get a mushroom udon to quell my war driven stomach. Not that it helped much, of course. But just to share my big bowl of New Year Eve dinner, here's a shot of it, after much picking, but eventually deciding that I really can't finish the bowl without having to barf/hurl out all my stomach contents as a very impressive projectile example towards the general direction of my brother, who was unfortunately sitting directly in front of me at that time:





Nice huh? and still quite full. But still, better than ruining everyone's New Year's eve by spilling my guts all over the place.

(drowsy) Happy New Year's Eve!

Skimping on Packaged Tech Item Manuals

Since I was recently frustrated with my new sony ericsson w800i's user guide manual that came in with the phone - it only gives high level instruction on the phone usage - I was looking through the web to find a more detailed specification to address my curiosity, particularly using the setup with the memory stick duo card. Here's what I found out after browsing through the web

Detailed Phone Specs http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/docstools/phonespecs/p_phonespecs.jsp

Personalization Docs http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/docstools/multimedia/p_multimedia.jsp

Nice w800/K750 Themes Site
http://gallery.mobile9.com/

Nice stuff.. but I was just wondering, whatever happened to packaging where a 0.5 inch thick book full phone specs can be browsed through? I was a bit surprised the accompanying manuals didn't even elaborate on what type of maximum resolution the phone camera can handle, or what version of bluetooth technology was installed in the phone, or just a simple "how many radio stations/SMS can it store in the phone memory" specification?

The same was also the case when I bought my air conditioner and LCD screen (whoops, it seems like I didn't log the specs for THAT) a few months ago... are these companies try to skimp on printing out several versions of its manuals or something?

This is precisely the reason why I post inane, over the top, extremely detailed specifications in this blog.. its a way for me to remember what kind of specs I have for the stuff I buy, since they so very nicely don't even include it in the packaging. Trying to be environmentally friendly and saving up on trees being cut down, or just plain trying to skimp on resources for corporate savings? At least if they were trying to be environmentally friendly, they could've indicated it in their manuals and placed a referencing URL to point to a more complete documentation.

My air conditioner manual didn't even specify a complete model number in the manual... I mean, can you imagine 4 years down the road, the air conditioner breaks down (I think 4 years is a reasonable time for the no-problem, working lifespan of an air conditioner, right?) I dig up my manuals, search and web, and become completely flabergasted by the number of similarly modelled airconditioners but with different sub category types and end up playing guess-that-sub-model, fix the air conditioner and find out that I picked out the wrong model and eventually have to get a new one? What's with that?

Its almost similar to having to support a company system that says "runs on Windows XP" but doesnt say if its "SP1 or SP2", or a Unix system with the corresponding OS, but doesn't specify the current patch level or kernel version. Its most likely to break down.

Yes, I apologize from the rant and rave, but its extremely irritating, and I don't want to have to bother with these things a few years down the road. I thought we were in an Information Age and information is just at your fingertips? Non organized, non specific labelling doesn't help very much to weed through a thousand Google hits for the average person, does it?

An Ode to Good Friends (A.K.A I'm Such a Klutz!)

What's with me today, I'm such a klutz!

First time in a long while, I'm suddenly hyperactive today. Usually I just pine away, like a sloth, slowly doing this, slowly doing that, but today is strangely different. I had a arranged dinner with friends, and prior to that, I had voice lessons to contend with. The voice lesson went along fine, and its been steadily improving for the past few sessions, once my voice teacher introduced the "shouting" technique to clear and prep up my diaphragm for actual singing. I've been singing more consistently nowadays, and my voice brighter than how its been for the past few months of voice lessons.

The lessons aside, I had to quickly commute from Prince Edward to Causeway Bay to catch up on a Holiday dinner with my friends at a Chinese restaurant in Causeway Bay - we ordered a table of traditional set chinese meal, so the food will definitely be a lot. They were supposed to start at 8pm, but the food came in late so I was able to play catch up for the rest of the meal. Lots of people there, like Mark, my high school friend, who was equally as sick as I was a few days ago and opted to order a separate dish to agree with his condition, Len and her brother David, whom I haven't seen for quite some time since this year's Pua Tiong Chiu (to know further about this, see my previous year's article on the event, which I was selected to organize), Janet and her brother Henry, plus Mei, Cab, Ping, Bryan, and a Hong Kong visitor, Jenner, who was my classmate since.. well, since I was in grade school. It certainly has been a long time.

Maybe it was the excitement of seeing all of them again, plus the holiday season, plus the good food, plus a gazillion of other factors. I was extremely hyperactive, talking to everyone this and that, and errr... also after the dinner, at Starbucks, knocking over my calamansi juice (yes, surprisingly, Starbucks Hong Kong has an offering of Calamansi Juice! would you look at THAT!) and spraying it over everyone, including Jenner, David and horrendously, at Cab, who was not going back to her place tonight and didn't have any extra clothes for the next day. And then it seemed everyone else followed suit, since Ping accidentally knocked over an empty cup, and additionally, mei (if my memory serves me right, its her) also knocking over something... and all towards the general direction of Cab. Poor her.

Despite that, the night was really great, and I loved everyone's company and seeing them all again. Whatever I've previously thought about Hong Kong Christmas, and its lack of Christmas spirit-thereof, compared to having Christmas over at the Philippines, at least I know that whenever I'm missing that spark of Christmas spirit during the Hong Kong holidays, I can always recreate the Christmas spirit with my close friends. They're one of the best part of my life here in Hong Kong, and everyone is lucky to have friends like these. :)

Klutz or not, its nice to spend being yourself with good friends. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Eve Dinner: Creamy Parmesan-Asparagus Risotto

This has been overdue, but I think I'd like to share our Christmas Eve dinner to my blog readers.

I've suddenly been hit with an urge to cook for Christmas Eve dinner this year. I haven't been cooking much lately at home, and so to celebrate the holiday season, I went and told my sister in law ahead of time that I was planning to contribute to the holiday season by cooking a dish on that day.

Actually, I've been thinking very much of cooking Risotto for some time already. I've only cooked it once, and it was pretty much very welcomed by the whole family. Additionally, its not that difficult to whip up, it just needs a bit of time to prepare and cook the batch, but you can never really go wrong with it. Plus, you end up with a rich, sumptuous, classy looking dish that's bound to win over almost everybody... at least everybody that's not on a diet anyway.

I mean, its Christmas. Who goes on a diet on Christmas?

For this Christmas Eve, I'm going to prepare a creamy asparagus risotto. I've done this before, and it shouldn't be any problem. I'd love to give you a picture, as it really did look nice, creamy and classy, but I didn't occur to me to snap a picture of it then. But you can have/make your own version.. they're almost the same looking, anyway.


Creamy Asparagus Parmesan Risotto

For the asparagus:
Bunch of Fresh Asparagus Stalks (Green), around 20-30 stalks, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
4-5 cups of water
salt

For the risotto:
Fresh block of Parmesan Parmigiano Reggiano, grated to minute flakes up to 1 to 1.5 cup (not densely packed)*
350g risotto Rice (Arborio variety is preferrable)**
1L chicken stock, slightly salty/salted
Olive oil
some garlic/onion (optional)

Serves 5-6 people
^See precooking notes first for more details

Instructions
For the asparagus:
1. In a small cooking pot, place the water and bring to a boil. Add a dash of salt.
2. Place the lower end of the asparagus stalks into the boiling water first, as the head of the asparagus cooks more quickly. Let it cook for 1 minute.
3. Place in the head section of the remaining asparagus stalks into the boiling water. Let it cook for 2 minutes. You want the asparagus to be cooked, but not overcooked, as these will be added to the risotto later, and will cook further.
4. Strain the asparagus out of the water. Set aside the stalks and let cool.
5. Keep the water used for boiling the asparagus, and add in the chicken stock so that the flavors will mix. This will serve as the base flavor of your risotto. Keep the stock in low heat.

For the risotto:
1. Prepare the pot where you'll be cooking the risotto. Take note that this will have to be able to contain a lot of cooked rice, so you want it to be big enough to carry all the ingredients.
2. Heat up the pan, and add in the olive oil. Make sure you have enough olive oil to be able to "sautee" the rice grains and cover them with olive oil completely.
3. When the olive oil is hot, you can optionally add the garlic/onion. Cook them first until the onions are clear.
4. Add in all the arborio rice grains and sautee them until they are completely covered in olive oil and the grains are slightly clearing. This should take around 5 minutes.
5. Add a ladleful of the stock from the asparagus-chicken stock combination. Continue slowly mixing the rice grains until the stock has been completely absorbed.
6. Continue this process by adding a ladleful of stock at a time until the stock has been completely used up, or the consistency is creamy, but the grains are still individually definite. This process should take around 30 minutes. DO NOT LEAVE THE RICE COOKING WITHOUT CONTINUOUS MIXING, OR COVERING THE POT WITH THE COVER.
6. At this point the rice grains should be almost cooked, but the center of the grain is still slightly uncooked (this is indicated by the obvious opaqueness still at the center of the grain). Add in the grated parmesan cheese until they are evenly spread within the risotto mixture.
7. Finally, add the asparagus and mix also until they are evenly spread.
8. When all the ingredients are mixed in, cover up the pot with the cover and let it cook for 2-5 more minutes, until the center of the grain is also translucent/cooked.
9. Turn off the heat and serve pipping hot.

Pre-cooking notes:
* Parmesan Parmigiano Reggiano - Getting a fresh block and shredding it when needed is always better than having a commercial prepackaged, already shredded version because the cheese looses its flavor very fast. If you get the chance to check a fresh block of this cheese, you can tell of the freshness that I'm talking about very easily because the cheese will smell very fragrant, rich and with depth, compared to the commercialized shredded version, which will smell and taste bland by comparision. But if the fresh block is inaccessible, the commercially prepackaged ones will have to do - but account maybe 15-20% more cheese in this case, instead of the 1-1.5 cup mentioned in the ingredients section.
** Risotto rice - there are actually three varieties for making risotto rice - Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialone Nano - but I am more familiarly acquainted to Arborio since it is the more widely available. All are medium to short rice grains, where the starch content is high, and adds to the creamy quality of the risotto dish. Long grains are a definite no no, as they contain the least amount of starch, and will be extremely unsuitable with risotto dishes.


I served this dish to my family, and I'm satisfied to say that despite the serving of 5-6 people, it was quickly finished by the 4 of us. :) I accompanied the dish with some assortment cold cuts (smoked turkey ham, lean ham, smoked salmon with tartar sauce) to complement the creaminess of the dish, and it worked out perfectly. My sister in law also prepared a chinese style stir fried rice vermicelli as an option for my grandmother (whose palate is more inching towards traditional chinese tastes) but turns out my grandmother liked both risotto and rice vermicelli equally.... and she did also gobble up a lot of the smoked salmon, which all of us found surprising. Seems like my grandmother knows fine food when she has them, even if they're western based :) All in all, a nice Christmas Eve dinner.

I hope everyone else had a fine Christmas/Christmas Eve dinner. Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Rent Broadway Play (with Karen Mok)

Ok, I saw this play last Dec 22, 2005. I love the play, I have the CDs, I know the songs by heart. I listen to it straight every once in a while, and contrary to most people I love the songs "Christmas Bells", "La Vie Boheme" and "Life Support" more as compared to "Seasons Of Love" which I think is more popular with the mainstream.

Just to give those unfamiliar to the play a quick rundown, the story written by Jonathan Larson, and is based on the life of a group of friends living in NYC. A number of them are HIV positive, and they're coping with their health as well as their life because of the lack of money, job, creativity, etc. The play basically deals with the idea that we should take life as we have them right now, and enjoy it while we can, and make the most of it, because everything might be gone in a blink of an eye. That's why the title is "Rent", and very appropriately so, as it not only talks of a person's rent to a flat, but also to life and love :

(Taken from the lyrics of I'll Cover You)*
I think they meant it,
when they say you can't buy love,
but I know you can rent it,
A new lease you are my love...
on life - be my life

(Taken from the lyrics of the Title Song, Rent)*
How do you leave the past behind
When it keeps finding ways to get to your heart
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out
Till you're torn apart
Rent!

How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray

What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away

...

Last year's rent
This year's rent
Next year's rent
Rent rent rent rent rent
We're not gonna pay rent
Cause everything is rent

I've heard the CDs for so long, I've eagerly awaited to see the actual production (I promptly missed a local Rent production in the Philippines, and no, I do not want to see Rent, the movie. I want to see Rent the broadway play!) and this was the chance that I've eagerly awaited for. Of course, there's also this teeny bit where Karen Mok plays Mimi, the one of the lead characters, and I don't really like her all that much. But maybe she might be good, I don't really know for sure.

The verdict? Well, its pretty good overall, and I really enjoyed the play... although there was a bit of pomp lacking to it, for some strange reason. Maybe the cast members have been playing the same thing for so long, or maybe because the play started for 2 weeks already, but it seemed to lack the vibrance that I was expecting after hearing my Rent cds for so long. They were all well and good though, but Karen Mok was a bit of a sore thumb from my perspective. I dont know about other reviewers, but I thought Karen Mok was lacking the life that I've always associated with Mimi, the character. I mean, don't get me wrong, she was pretty good with her singing, but you seem to get the idea that she belonged more in a studio rather than a live act play. A lot of the stuff she did was slightly going off to feeling a bit scripted and lacking in that certain "gusto" that you expect from Broadway plays.. its as if she didn't belt enough, or throw herself to the role enough. In some ways, you were still seeing Karen Mok in front of you, instead of living the Mimi role.

But this may be her first time to act in a play, and I'm going to give her a benefit of a doubt. But if you're really not expecting anything at all, I believe the play itself with Karen Mok is good enough. I've probably just been too spoiled with Broadway standard Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.

The rest of the cast was superb... I didn't expect Roger to be the way he was, but I absolutely loved the cast who played Mark, Benny, Collins and particularly Angel. They were what I expected them to be, and a whole lot more. Nice acting, and great singing, and lots of pomp. Totally amazing stuff.

All in all, I loved the play, minus Karen Mok. Regardless, its still one of my favorite plays, and I'll probably continue on listening to the CDs for now, until a next Rent production comes to Hong Kong again.

*all rights and ownership are those of the Rent production and team. Not mine, not mine. Please don't sue me.

Testing picture display

Testing resizing pictures with html:



Does it come out ok?

Looks like it. Oh good good!

Sample Pictures

Oh by the way, the pictures in the previous entry was taken using my new phone... pretty neat huh? (its resized, of course..)

Korean Samjin-brand Chocolate Covered Cookie

Here's a pretty tasty snack brought back by one of my office colleagues from Korea:



At first glance at the product picture on the packaging, it looks a lot like a Korean version of a cross of two Philippine-made snack by the name of Chocomallows and Chococrunch, the previous made from flattened and resized mashmallows into cookie shape and covered and encrusted in sweet chocolate, and the latter is a chocolate encrusted cookie made of out of wheatgerm and shortbread. I'm sure a lot of Phillipine based people has had experience eating them; they're almost like a Philippine kiddle staple.

Upon opening the pack and taking a bite, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that its not the case, although it is a bit similar to both food items I just mentioned. It turns out that instead of chocolate encrusted mashmallows, the food item was made of a jelly rubbery texture similar to those of japanese mochi (sticky rice cake) but slightly sweeter and less rubbery. At the middle, in place of the wheatgerm-cross-shortcake cookie is a soft, rather indefinite form of cookie made primarily of peanut cake.



Its rather addicting to eat, since its not as sweet or sugar high as the previous two mentioned, and you can almost imagine eating them in loads. I wonder if they sell it here in Hong Kong though... they're really REALLY good.

Here's a few more pictures of the side and the back:





If anyone sees them, here in Hongkong or back there in the Philippines, can you tell me? They're extremely addicting.

Pissed at MCL JP Cinema

There's a thing about long lines that irks me: the irritating chatter of throngs of people hanging about waiting for their turn to come, the incessantly trival delays that people spend at the start of the line haggling to get the stuff that they want; and the actual waiting time when you're really in a hurry to catch something else.

All that and more I had to endure to get to a movie ticketing booth to try to get to watch a movie that's been showing for 2 weeks in Hong Kong already.

The movie was "Perhaps Love" (如果‧愛) , a chinese movie/musical starring Jacky Cheung, Zhou Xun, and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Reviews were pretty good, and the film is an upcoming candidate for the Oscars next year respresenting Hong Kong, besting The Myth and Everlasting Regret. Despite the fact that Takeshi Kaneshiro stars - his good looks are more well known than his acting skills.. and IMHO, he's fairly average as an actor - but a good indicator is usually involvement with Jacky Cheung. So far I've seen recently, he's picked a fairly good amount of well made movies. To give my readers some perspective, I was very much looking forward to this movie as much as King Kong and Harry Potter. I was expected to be THAT good, as a local chinese production.

The movie was scheduled at 3:50, and I was already in line at about 3:30. Unfortunately for me, loads of other blockbuster movies were about to be shown in the upcoming Christmas break this week, namely King Kong, Harry Potter, and Chicken Little. The first two alone would create lines as long as the Great Wall of China, if I had my say. And trust me, the lines were loooOOooong. I was irked to the bone when the time passed the 3:50 mark. Bad enough I missed it, but when I finally got into the ticket booth, the person informed me that there will be no more viewings for this particular movie starting tomorrow.

I got into a rage.

Its bad enough I lined up for the movie itself, but to find out that it would not be showing anymore (at my favorite cinema house, no less - they have really good layout, big screens and awesome sound system) and the fact that despite the long lines, they opened only 2 out of three booths.. and with a girl standing inside the ticketing booth doing nothing. I was so pissed I was already cramming to ask for the manager... I specifically applied for a membership in for this particular movie chain, because this one location in Causeway Bay, called JP Cinema, had extremely good layout for movie watching. And finally, as a patron, I was frustrated to find out how logistically incapable these people are. unfortunately, the peon of a person selling the tickets was too english incapable to understand my complaints to talk to the manager, and I left the ticket booth as a fuming, irritated and extremely dissatisfied customer.

I have almost no choice but to continue patronizing this movie chain, as they are the only ones so far that has had a spectacular layout for movie watching. But if I soon find a similar layout, I'm going to immediately switch movie chains.

I'm going to have to watch the movie in another chain then, despite that they're still showing Perhaps Love in their other location branches. I'm just too pissed to watch it at any MCL branch right now.

Home Eats 2

As a wrap up of my Philippine trip this year, here's the (food and) event breakdown to remember by....

10 Dec (Sat)
Out with friends
lunch - G4 pasta at fast food
merienda - Dulcinea Fresh Fruit Shake (always and seemingly forever. But I'm not complaining.)
merienda (and another) - Break Talk Pork Floss
dinner - At a friend's place, watching 浪漫满屋 for the first time

11 Dec (Sun)
am - clubhouse and tea at Starbucks
am (and another) - sweet potato porriage and loba
lunch - home
merienda - tart, suha, suman, banana
home service massage ... that kills :)
dinner - home

12 Dec (Mon)
[Oracle Workshop]
*am - clubhouse sandwich (3 parts)
*pm - Mcdonalds spaghetti
Watched Reese Witherspoon's Feels Like Heaven.. nice chick flick, not bad
dinner - Mexicali, Sugarhouse Apple Pie and Sans Rival

13 Dec (Tues)
[Oracle Workshop]
*am - Mcdonalds longganisa meal
*pm - Delifrance (Huuuuuge) ensymada
dinner - boxed dried fish and rice, Portico at Adriatico

14 Dec (Wed)
[Oracle Workshop]
*am - clubhouse sandwhich (2 parts)
lunch - PBcom tower korean bibimbap with a friend
*pm - Chowking siopao

15 Dec (Thu)
[Oracle Workshop]
*am - Tropical Hut tapa with rice and egg
lunch - KFC with sean
*pm - Starbucks croissant with ham and cheese
My brother pics me up from the MRT station at North Edsa.. they've put up all these blocks to prevent PUJs and PUBs from causing traffic.. nice.

16 Dec (Fri)
[Oracle Workshop]
*am - Tropical Hut burger
lunch - Mcdonalds Quarter Pounder (I just couldn't resist...)
*pm - Yellow Cab Pizza
dinner - Cafe Breton strawberry crepe
dinner merienda - bread talk pizza and pork floss
@home - carrot cake

17 Dec (Sat)
A trip to S&R with my niece and nephew
lunch - home
merienda - Burgoo's
Wow! King Kong! @G4 with brother and his gf
dinner - Century Hotel
Late Night - Starbucks tea with friends

18 Dec (Sun)
lunch - Alba with cousins and family
dinner - potluck with friends (and my Macaroni Salad)

Good trip and even better experience. Glad I was able to meet up with a lot of my friends, and also spend time together with my family, and at the same time, push forward my career with a possible(certain) OCP certification. It was tiring though, but still, I can't wait to be back to the Philippines again.

Wrapping up Gifts at Wan Chai

Siomai, porridge, Wan Chai, and more than 20 boxes of picture frames, what do they have in common?

Nothing really. Except for the fact that they were all together today.

Imagine two people entering the Wan Chai restaurant with several plastic bags on hand. Just got back from shopping? Maybe.

They sit down, looked through the menu and ordered siomai, porridge, chicken feet and asked for tea. Just tired and full? Possible.

Then they start pulling out all the stuff inside their plastic bags on the empty table, bring out a scotch tape dispenser, a big scissor, and unroll the grift wrappers. Gift wrapping? yes.

It would've been ok if it looked like they were merely going to wrap one gift. What follows is a scene much like a sweat shop/production line, as both persons started wrapping not one, two or three times, but more than 20 items, one stack growing on top of the other. Plus there's also the special non standard gifts for kids, and the official exchange gift that's about to happen in the next few hours once they arrive at their friend's place.

But, that's fast forwarding a bit too much.

While still wrapping, the food comes, and they both eat while still continually wrapping. The waiters are all curiously looking at them while both people wrap the gift (photo frames) with a urgency and pace that was unlike normal. And so they wrapped.

And wrapped. And wrapped. Finally, after err.... 45 minutes, they both finish up, put the gifts back into the plastic bag, eat the rest of the remaining food with a gulp, paid the bill, and left the establishment.

Those are, me and my boyfriend, by the way. Was with my boyfriend at a local Dimsum chain in the Philippines, ironically called Wan Chai (In the real Hong Kong, I WORK in that area), near the place where my college barkada Christmas party will be taking place. Talk about last minutes, huh?

*Yes, for those people who were wondering why we didn't come at exactly 6pm (or was it 5?), we were doing the gifts for you. Be grateful, Christmas is the time to be forgiving and jolly.

Macaroni Salad

Here's something I whipped up for my college barkada's gathering for today. We decided on a children friendly Christmas gathering by opting for potluck at one of our friend's house, compared to the usual yearly lets-meet-at-a-resto. I offered for prepare this since a lot of the stuff were already either grilled or fried, and figured that a nice cold macaroni salad would be best to compliment what the others will be bringing along.

Its easy to prepare, and can be done one day before hand as you'll likely need to refrigerate the salad once you're finished preparing it.

Ingredients
macaroni elbow pasta (or actually, any type of pasta with do as long as they're bite sized pieces)
oil
water, for boiling pasta
shredded chicken meat, from whole chicken
raisins
pineapple bits, from can
potatoes, cubed
carrots, cubed
iodized salt and pepper

Method
Boil the water, add in some oil and a dash of salt to taste. When boiling, add the pasta and follow the package directions for the appropriate length of time to cook. Before removing the pasta from the boiling water, make sure that they're just about appropriately cooked, al dente. Place on a strainer and douse with slightly cold water to avoid them pastas from continuing to cook from the hot water. Set aside.

Cook the cubed potatoes and carrots by also placing them in a pot of boiling water similar to the pasta. Add a dash of salt to taste. Wait for roughly 3 minutes for the pieces to cook, and then strain out from the pot, and also set aside.

Place the pasta into a big bowl, and slowly add the rest of the ingredients together with the mayonnaise/miracle whip while carefully tossing them. Again, you can add salt and pepper to the mixture to taste. Once the taste is to your liking, pack and refrigerate until needed to be served.

First time I made, and i must say, it is pretty good. :) Feel free to try it out and experiment.

Oh And Another Thing... Now Physically There!

Since I was meeting my cousins at Alba's... remember this post a few months back?

Well, I got it back today... Hooooray!

Alba

Every time I come back to the Philippines, there's one thing that will usually, and almost for sure, happen. My grandmother will always treat me out for lunch, with the rest of my cousins, on a Sunday, and always, we would head off to have that lunch buffet at Alba's.

The place is located at Tomas Morato. Its a Spanish-Filipino (slightly fusioned) restaurant, nicely decorated, much like Portico's, small, cozy, warm. No bars around, but there is a section for a delicatessen with cheeses, hams and desserts.

For the buffet, its not a long table to begin with, but quantity doesn't always mean quality. Their usual Sunday lunch buffet servings include Spanish potato omelettes, baked mussels with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, hams and lots of finger foods. They have this great big huge seafood Paella as one of the highlights, with all sorts of stuff.. crab, shrimp, squid.. the works, and its very nice. Additionally, there'd be a couple of additional main courses, usually 4, which would always seem to have my favorite, lengua (ox's tongue) to my liking. Finally, there's a small section that offers fresh lechon, and afterwards, a motley of desserts like Brazo de Mercedes, Leche Flan, fresh fruits and small cake desserts.

The restaurant isn't big, and so far I've seen, its only got first floors (compared to Portico, which had second floors to accomodate more people). The space aside though, the place is comfy, the food is good, but they do not seem to have a flag dish that would come accross as spectacular or distinctive. But you certainly get your money's worth when it comes to the quality of food they provide, and trust me, after being to another buffet the previous day, I find that THAT previous place should be ashamed to even be open when compared to the likes of Albas.

A nice place to go to, when you're particularly not craving for anything, and want to have good, comfortable food.

.... and strangely enough, its ALWAYS the same table we sit on. What gives?

Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005)

What have I got to say?

THAT WAS AN AMAZING MOVIE!

I don't get the deal why a lot of people are saying that it was boring at the 1 hour of the movie. I suppose they were just sort of looking for wanting to get straight to seeing King Kong in action - a pseudo pitfall for a movie that's made famous because its principal character is as huge and as well-known as Godzilla. Frankly, I've never bothered to know what the original King Kong story is about... I just know, King Kong is huge (both literally and physically) , and its just now that I'm being reacquainted with the actual history of this film.

As for my just mentioned comment, I say "pseudo-pitfall" because the first hour isn't really boring, or dragging. True, Kong doesn't enter the screens until well into the beginning of the second hour, and audiences are probably impatient that way, especially in an age where everything is convenient and instantaneous. But the whole first act is just matter of film making perspective. There's a need to set up the mood and feel of the story, to introduce lead characters so that the audience will have a connection with them, and so that the movie will be able to pull the audience into the fantastical world of make believe reality that movies are made for.

Peter Jackson has set up a very nice first act in this case, if you're one of the many people who appreciated the first hour of the movie. I have not seen the original film, and I doubt that the first hour is needed for the original 1933 movie, as its already set in 1933. There might be no need to set up a environment depicting the depression era in the original film's case, but the director made a good choice by presenting this in the most recent remake of the movie - it builds on the timepiece of the film, drawing viewers in to the timeline rather than making them believe that all is happening in present-day Manhattan. Besides, whoever would've suspended their belief if Kong was brought to New York and shot down my airplanes, or shown in a theater and displayed as the Eighth Wonder of the World? That's HARDLY believable. (There's going to be complaints and lawsuits from animal rights group all over the world, and audiences could always say we could bomb Kong with gazillions of machine guns and snipers... he wouldn't even have made it halfway through the Empire State Building that way.)

Jackson has made nice parallels between his story lines, and there's a plethora of metaphors and symbolisms hidden in the first hour, if not all of the whole movie. To the inquisitive viewer, it comes off as an intelligent piece, not just another bombshell blockbuster action movie that's been released for the past year. To the average viewer, it might be a bit slow, but it would still be entertaining to watch as a precursor to the Kong centerpiece.

From the very start, I've already loved the casting - Naomi Watts made a great Ann Darrow, Black Jack as an ingenious and slightly scheming Carl Denham, and Adrien Brody a slightly suprising pick but well deserved casting as the human romantic counterpart for Kong, Jack Driscoll. The other casting were also well deserved - all came on with the 1933 backdrop as if they belonged there. No fancy Hollywood faces can be seen in this movie, slightly low-key casting, which is actually great (these popular faces tend to disrupt the audiences' suspended reality.. imagine Brad Pitt as Jack Driscoll and Nicole Kidman as Ann Darrow? Hardly - you'd probably start looking for Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes somewhere in the screen) If I had my way, I'd like to pick on Peter Jackson's brain to see how in the world he decided upon these actors to portray these characters in his ever beloved King Kong movie. That's all that I want to know... they're very ingenious casting, to say the least.

The second act, when finally Kong makes a show, is the main action sequence. There's hardly any room to breathe here. Its one CG action sequence after another - if its not the rescue party's ongoing perils, its a separated Ann Darrow's horrifying experience of escaping the many dangerous tenants of Skull Island. Giant cetipedes, cockroaches, a brontosaurus stampede, T-Rexes, giant bats. All in a day's horror works. Both storylines are interlaced with each other that gave that feel of life threatening and dangerous place that is Skull Island. The action may be a bit overdone here, but nevertheless, all is forgiven as the sequences are pretty good by themselves - A lot of people have probably seen the action sequence trailers with Kong and the T-Rexes, as well as the Brontosaurus stampedes, but its altogether a different feel when they're interlaced against each other.

Despite that, it was a good thing as Peter Jackson opted to chronicle the development of understanding between Ann Darrow and her captor. This would be the foundation in building the scenes for the last act when Kong invades that jungle that is New York City with his usual romp and berserking mode while searching for that all familiar face. Although the last act was a bit of an anticlimatic moment, it nevertheless serves its purpose as the movie arrives in its tragedy-like full circle when finally Kong takes a nose dive from the top of the Empire State Building.

There is one thing that bothered me in this movie though: Jack Driscoll wasn't given enough time with Ann Darrow throughout the second and third acts to develop a significant connection to make a believable ending as the curtains closed on the couple as he comforted the distressed lady in her loss. It just didn't seem enough explication why Driscoll, in the second act, would risk his life to rescue his lady-love, alone, in the jungles within Skull Island, and more unconvincingly, why, in the third act, he would even attempt to be a hero and thwart Kong from wrecking havoc in New York City as Kong violently released himself from his chains in his anger to search for Ann. If the development had been done in a more proper way, the ending would've been a much better as compared to an anticlimatic one in the last act. I believe that its not the fault of the actor, but of the director and the editing team, that resulted in this. Although the ending was heart wrenching, it didn't really tie up lose ends in a way that I'd appreciate. Hopefully that would be cleared up in a typically Peter Jackson fashion in the release of the extended DVD version (if there is ever going to be one).

Despite this lacking point, the movie is a great success for the director, and leaves a track record that seems to be unblemished until even the present. Let's hope that he does more of these kinds of movies in the future, and I'll certainly be closely following any future productions he might handle. This movie warrants a second, and even a third viewing, as it is a timeless, well made, classic movie, maybe as much as the original.

Go watch it! :)

Century Hotel Dinner Buffet

Ugh.

I'm sorry, but for P900++, I expected more from this dinner buffet.

The cafe had several sections dedicated to different types of food; Appetizers, which you have a whole section to chose from, a separate salad section, a main course section, an area for chinese entrees like dimsum, another for make-your-own-pastas, another one for make-your-own-grills, and yet another one for make-your-own-noodle-soup, a sushi section, and another one for dessert.

Sounds like a wide range of choices?

Well, not really, if you could actually been there to see the state that all the food was in.

The food seemed like it has been standing around for several days already, quite dry and lacking in pomp. The dimsum section was a cheat, as it simply coined siomai and dumplings as a different dish, but they just simply differed in presentation: the first was partially wrapped up with the top showing, and the latter was completely wrapped up in dumpling wrapper. The salad section would've been nice - it had all sorts of stuff, corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, hams ... all the standard stuff - if it weren't for the obvious browning of lettuce leaves evident in the vegetable bowl. By this time you'd wonder how long the other non-obvious food items in the salad section has been left there... to rot. The grill section looked like it was a makeshift main entree area with the metal casing covers, but contained raw food items, which were a bit ludicrous. To top it all off, one of the trays had whole eels in them. Now how appetizing is that? The noodle section seemed to be in a similar state... browning salmons? I don't think so.

I'm sure when they were first created they looked sumptuous, but there should be such a thing as quality control, especially coming from a hotel. I was even expecting to see mold as the food seemed like as if they've been left untouched and unreplenished for some time already. Even if the area has lost its appeal to the classy yuppie and business area shouldn't be an excuse to lose its quality; the new Hyatt I've been to the last time also in the same vicinty had a pretty good offering for their breakfast buffets; I'd expect they have the same quality for their dinner buffets also.

The only noteworthy items that I stuffed myself on were 2 things: (1) the bread and butter and (2) the crepe section. At least they had a decent crepes, albeit simple. There's no choice for the crepes though, but its still a long shot from the browning salad leaves as this came off as freshly made, and was not much of a put off. For the price, I'm pretty disappointed. If all buffets were the case, no wonder people nowadays choose Brazil Brazil at Powerplant, Portico or Cafe Breton... for the price paid for these establishments, they're worth a lot more for a lot less, and much more filling.

And you thought I was becoming a bit too generous and patronizing for all these food place reviews :P

Bread Talk

Well, this has been the talk of the town for quite some time since it arrived in Manila. Breadtalk has probably been around for a year already, based on the first news I heard last Christmas. A lot of people came around saying that its highly recommended, but personally I felt that it may be naught for me because the quality of the bread sold at Breadtalk is different from the standard bread quality in the Philippines. Considering that bread quality in Hong Kong is pretty good for standard side street normal bake and bread shops, I assumed that this would be the same. Similarly, I've also received news that it is similar to the breads sold locally (Hong Kong), I didn't think much of it the first time it was mentioned to me.

Finally I had the chance to pass by one of their shops located in Glorietta 4 last Saturday and this Friday, so I figured I might as well try it out for myself rather than judging from heresay. Upon arriving, the environment is less to my liking. Perhaps it seemed to me that the shop is too bright and too "orange" for my taste, and the layouting seems somewhat stuffy, particularly in a country like the Philippines where its year round hot and humid. Its made even worse for the fact that the actual baking is done at the store, and the internal seems like a hot oven on a humid day, and even worse, its situated right beside the G4 entrance.

Actually, I never would've tried it if not for the fact that one of my Hong Kong Fil chi friends mentioned that their spicy pork floss bread was extremely good because of the sauce, and not exactly the pork floss. Owing that all Hong Kong bakeries have their own generic version of the pork floss bread, I previously thought nothing of their famous "pork floss" (this was always talked about by my Philippine friends earlier last year) until the "sauce" was mentioned.

Passing by, I grabbed a piece of the spicy pork floss bread(at P45 per piece at the time of this entry, I personally thought it extremely expensive). The lines were long, but I was pleased to find out that the pay counters were extremely fast, compared to Philippine standards. This was a definite plus for me. I paid for my bread, and tried it out.

My friend was actually right. The pork floss aside, it was the sauce that made the whole thing taste more than the usual pork floss bread. Its also the reason why I went for seconds today, as I've tried it already last Saturday. The spicy combination is just right to ellicit a differentiation of the Breaktalk market against other Hong Kong bakeshops (there are now several Breaktalk stores in Hong Kong) but I personally think that its not enough to warrant a steal in the bread and bakeshop market in Hong Kong. But for the Philippines, it was a smart strategic move, as there are no existing bread and bakeshop of this kind to offer competition (There's also a similar strategy with Fitness First gyms, but that is another posting altogether)

The other shop selections are pretty much similar to Hong Kong bread shops like Maxims (美心西餅), Saint Honore Cake Shop, Arome Bakery etc., although I must admit that since a lot of people do buy from Breadtalk, most of its bread are freshly made out of the oven consequently have a more superior quality compared to the ones I usually have in Hong Kong (all their breads feel like they've been lying around the try for hours already.. there's no more of that warm, spongy texture that you get from freshly made bread) as can be seen when I also tried their pizza bread.

All in all, the feedback is pretty good, at least for Philippine standards. Its distinctive in its own way, and it will likely get a good chunk of market share since it seems like its the first of its kind. The spicy pork floss bread is good, and its nice to have seconds, but not really warranting for daily consumption as it comes off more as a mid-end luxury. Nice, though.

Cafe Breton

Cafe Breton has been the hit the talk of the town for a couple of years already. It seems that its still coming along strong, and a good choice for getting quality crepes and desserts. Its a small shop at the entrance for Greenbelt 3 facing the main water fountains, just beside the Starbucks and Seattles' Best coffee shops. I've been to this establishment several times since its inception, and so far there's always a little something for everyone. Fruit crepes for those taking a light meals, ham and cheese based crepes for the more heavy hungry people, good drinks and shakes to accompany their well made crepes.

This time around, I ordered a fresh strawberry crepe with a whipped cream, as it seems to be recommended by the waiter since strawberries are supposedly in season. My friend had the more popular and mass friendly La Pinay, a crepe made up of the standard chopped fresh ripe mangoes within the crepe and topped with vanilla ice cream and thick hot cholocate syrup that's pretty much standard for locally based filipinos (you always can't go wrong with mangoes and chocolate.. it seems that most filipinos are weaned from birth with a extreme liking to them).

To my pleasure, the crepes came out with the same quality as if it was when I first ate there a few years back, all nice, fresh and properly layed out in the dish. The strawberries weren't really as sweet, but then again I don't expect it to be as sweet as those humongous long stemmed Driscoll branded strawberries I buy in Hong Kong, but they were pretty good. coupled with lots of whipped cream, and topped with a nice vanilla ice cream which complemented the strawberries nicely. My friend had his La Pinay also to his liking, and did grab a quick bite for another sampling.

For drinks, I had the chance to sample their strawberry shake... very nice. Probably not as good as Cibo, but still very good. :)

At the end of the day, its nice to know that Cafe Breton still is a reliable, all around choice for a good filling breakfast/lunch/merienda/dinner when there's the need to go back to good, warm crepes. I'm sure I'll be coming back soon any time in the future.

I seem to promising more and more to come back to new resto places now... this is bad. I think I will end up fat the next time I go for a trip back home. :P

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 7, Addendum 2: Interesting Eats)

As I mentioned in my previous post, snack time was severely an understatement for the Oracle10g Administration 2 Workshop in Manila.

I tried my best to remember as much as possible the "snacks" they served to us the whole week for both morning and afternoons, and see for yourself :

12/12 Mon
am - huuge clubhouse sandwich (3 parts)
pm - Mcdonalds spaghetti

12/13 Tue
am - Mcdonalds longganisa
pm - Delifrance [gigantic] ensymada

12/14 Wed
am - Again.. huuuge clubhouse sandwhich (2 parts)
pm - Chowking siopao

12/15 Thu
am - Tropical Hut tapa with rice and egg
pm - Starbucks croissant with ham and cheese

12/16 Fri
am - Tropical Hut burger
pm - Yellow Cab Pizza

Based on my colleagues that have attended the first workshop the prior week, it seems that the Yellow Cab Pizza is standard for Friday afternoons, on the last day of the workshop. They have liberally taken their choice and created a sandwich for their Yellow Cab Pizza on Friday, one on top of the other in an inverted position - I wasn't sure about the portions, but I was almost sure that we weren't really entitled for 2 pieces of pizza per person, but they seemed to be enjoying so I just opted not to get my share, seeing that all my workshop colleagues are men and with humongous appetites.

Still, not bad for breaktime. It definitely gave me a fair sharing of my tuition money, as well as my satisfaction to my obvious interest in enjoying what's-now-in steamline slightly-for-the-masses share of appetite whenever I do come back home. Good enough.

W800i New Phone

I also got a new phone... after 2 years. A gift from my boyfriend, a nice Sony Ericsson w800i phone with a 2 Megapixel camera, a 512MB memory stick duo and some really great earphones that comes together with it. The color is a bit eye candy for my taste (It was cream smooth white and a subdued bright orange combination) but it was nice overall. What a nice Christmas gift.

There was a bit of a problem transferring music files to the memory stick using its prepackaged phone to usb cable, as I found myself staying up very late copy over my mp3 files via windows explorer, unplugging the cable and finding out whole sets of music files gone. Seems as if its related to the firmware of the phone that's related to the usb driver. On the other hand, as a workaround, I've tried directly transfering the files via the memory card reader, and it works perfectly fine. Thank goodness for Oracle freebies (that's how I got my card reader :) ) Other than that, the phone is great, works even better, and is a lifesaver replacement for iPod shuffle - phone combinations - I could never hear or feel the phone ringing when I'm plugged into my Ipod Shuffle.

Additionally it also has a radio function, and a built in memory where you can add other applications to the phone. I haven't explored that possibility yet, as I've heared you can also install a photo noise filtering software to complement the very nice camera. The pictures are very clear on brightly lit areas, but will have to put up with a bit for shaded areas, since the shades become a bit grainy. But nothing that a good noise filtering software can't fix. The new phone sounds promising.

Now all I have to do is transfer all my Nokia 6100 address book and calendar to the new phone. That's the only thing troublesome about the whole thing. But still a very good phone, nonetheless.

Expect me to be putting up more pictures to this blog then, right after my Canon Ixus 2 promptly clonked out on me a month after the warranty expired. :)

Portico

This one was located along Adriatico, within the greater area of Malate where most of the older Manila nightlife comes to life. I was meeting friends tonight, and I wasn't expecting much for the food and place - normally when I meet up with friends, its usually somewhere where there are throngs of loud people, like grills (Gerry's, Crocodile Grill, Aysees, Dencios), yuppie food joints(Fridays, Italianis, Chillis, CPK) or just plain old stay at home and hit the PS2 console while churning down on nachos, spaghettis and hotdogs.

This out turned out to be an interesting place to hang out with friends. Different, elegant, classy and best of all, not so crowded. Once I stepped in, I was pretty much taken in.

The interiors were laid back, with nice, comfy looking couches and cushioned seats, with a small bar at the entrance. The place was dimly lit with soft yellow light to accentuate the mood for a nice date experience, without being too dark to the point that you'd have a hard time seeing your companion's face. Small touches to the decor, with just the right amount of paraphernalias without feeling too overcrowded (take Fridays and Chillis as an example), with a slightly homey and personal feel to the place, but still looking as if it can cater to a fancy, relaxed drink for who'd like to spend their time in the bar section instead.

My friends have already taken to ordering the appetizers, which I believe consisted of a fish based pate, and another which was a combination of cheese and tomato based sauce.* They were good. For the main dish I ordered a pesto based pasta, while some of the others ordered tomato based pasta, steaks etc. They were all good, but I thought the steaks were a bit overpriced since they were all ranging between 600-800php per dish. The pastas were good at 250php. Not the usual standard fast food pasta, and nice, overall. They also have a selection of wines to choose from to complement the dishes, which were a plus.

The food highlight of the night was the sumptuous dessert we had. They were very good, and delicate. We had a sample of the creme brulee and panna cotta. Honestly speaking, both seemed to be made of the same ingredients, except for the fact that the creme brulee was warm and with a toasted top, while the panna cotta was served cold. For those who can only try one, go for the panna cotta, it was extremely heavenly and delicate, and the subtle flavors just come out with a burst as a cold dish. Extremely good. Highly recommended dessert.

I'd go back there if its just for the ambiance and the dessert. All in all, it was a very nice experience, and I daresay the company also made it better. I've met up with people whom I haven't seen for quite some time, and our group was composed of remotely located people previously coming from Singapore/England, Japan, China, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Its also a great date place, so its nice enough for both, if you want a different type of gathering. The place is also something you can have a nice Christmas office party at... not the rowdy types, but the more formal, elegant ones.

I think I'd like to come back there again the next time... good memories and good food will definitely make out to good patrons in the future. Comes in highly recommended. Good food and great ambiance Cheers.

*For those who were with me, it'd be great if you can enlighten me what it actually was.

Paranoia in Manila

I found myself constantly looking left and right.

I clutched to my sling handbag to make sure that I haven't dropped anything.

I took the jeep from Pacific Star trying to look the least bit inconspicuous as possible, even as I wore my bright, shocking aqua blue felt covered jogging jacket on a innocently warm and damp noon day.

I proceeded to get off the public jeep at the Makati Landmark stop and walked non chalantly towards the Greenbelt area, crossing the street and avoiding getting hit by cars.

I passed by Bizu, crossed the entrance to the Greenbelt carpark, turned right and faced the McDonalds branch near the old Greenbelt Mall. I called up a friend along the way to keep my thumping, paranoid heart in order, and while passing by the McDonalds branch, saw two men, a yellow skinned, chinese one, and a brown skinned filipino, meet and give each other a quick smack on the lips. I quickly recounted this to my friend while nervously still giggling away.

I hung up my phone and said goodbye to my friend as after a few steps, I saw the non descript office on the opposite side of the road - my destination - and nervously walked towards the entrance, still eyeing my surroundings and making sure that I remained as inconspicuous as possible. The main door and its front entrance is made up of clear window-glass, but tinted in a shade that would avoid any passersbys outside to identify the people within. As I approached the entrance, the doorman let me in with a curious nod. I settled to the counter and I reached down within my bag to produce two ugly 4"x6" green cards and handed the lady at the other side of the counter with them, as well as delivering a slightly conscious and sickeningly sweet but paranoid smile.

She takes a look at them, smiles in that irritating way that most counter ladies do, and asked me to wait for a bit.

After a few minutes of trying to look busy reading a Newsweek magazine lying about, the counter lady came out with two small manila-envelope type packages on her hand. She carefully opened them and with a soft delicate touch, produced the two goods for my inspection. I carelessly looked at them, and with a pained smile, gave her the nod of agreement indicating that all is as expected, and produced a gold card and a quick, written scrawny signature to complete the transaction.

"Would you like to wear them, or should I just put them back into their packaging?" she inquired respectfully.

I gave her an incredulous face, and a twisted, funny-you-should-suggest-that smile.

She smiled at me sheepishly to admit the absurdity of her suggestion, and placed the goods back into the envelopes.

At this moment I was contemplating on asking for the ladies room, and cram the small, non descript envelopes into my underpants, but thought better of it. Maybe it would be better if I stuffed them both in each of my running shoes.

Maybe I should get going.

Instead, I just crammed them into my handbag and walked out of the room and into the busy street. Looking left and right, I walked a bit across and turned at the McDonalds corner, still weighing whether I should take the public transport back to Pacific Star, and where. That same morning I was unable to find the jeep to Pacific Star, and had to resort to walking several blocks from Ayala Center to Buendia Avenue. That wasn't the best of options at the moment.

Then when water droplets started coming down on my head.

Great.

Thoughts of blood, violence and a string of expletives now abound within my head. If only someone was nice enough to drive me anywhere, or given me a free hand on driving one of the cars at home, or given me a personal, well trusted driver, or...

Darn.

I might as well get a taxi.

I hopped into a taxi, and proceeded to call one of my other friends to keep my company and quell my already paranoid state. I glanced back nervously at the driver, and proceeded to talk to my friend and hoping that the distraction (and the taxi) would get me as quick as lightning to my destination back to Pacific Star.

Upon arriving, the rest of my afternoon in the Oracle office was spent plaguing on scenarios that would haunt me.

Finally, the end of the day arrived and with my relief, jumped into my significant other's car and let out a huge, stress relieving sigh. What a horrible day.

Having picked up two serviced Rolexes in your hand bag and walking and commuting around Manila isn't one of the best way to spend your vacation.

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 7, Addendum: Interesting People)

I've met a couple of interesting people in the 10g Workshop. Strangely enough, its actually a fun thing to have attended it particularly when its in the Philippines... most of the students are new exposure Oracle students, mostly consisting of programmers, consultants and system analysts, some DBAs with exposure in SQLServer, with an exception of one which was an actual Oracle DBA.

It must be because I've been living and working against the Hong Kong environment, but I throughly enjoyed being back around people whom I can communicate effortlessly with my native tongues.

Roly - System Developer who's already taken the OCA examination
Archie - works at Smart Philippines. He's the person I've referenced as an Oracle DBA, with exposure from version 7 to current new projects based on 10g.
Erwin - IT specialist formerly situated in Saudi/Dubai. He's thinking of picking up a on the DBA role as a profession.

Its such a strange feeling, but it feels extremely reassuring to be able to talk about my profession without having to explain things from the ground up (I am the only DBA in my current working environment, resulting in me talking to myself a lot of times....) and particularly when based on things about Oracle.

How fascinating... I'm liking my experience already...

Mexicali

Its been a while since I had a good burrito.

Not that I'm a burrito connoiseur. I only just had the chance to sample three burritos from particular restaurants my whole life - two from Phillipine based Mexicali and Tia Marias, and another in a Hong Kong based resto called Ay Caramba - and the last two did not exactly fit to my palate. I've always gone back to the same resto since then whenever I had my thirst for burritos, time and time again, since I discovered the Mexicali chain from my second brother back when I was still in secondary school. He was craving for jalapenos back then, and if I remember correctly, that was the only place we knew that served it. I've also had a fanciful relationship with jalapenos, but that is another matter altogether. My stomach used to be able to handle them with my gluttonous nature, but they haven't been agreeing on me the past few years. Now a few slices of them could already ease my satisfaction. But the burritos. The burritos are fine, and they suit exactly to my stomach's liking - both tastewise and capacity wise.

Now that I think about it, I think I should remember the next time I dive back home to thank my brother for the introduction. I've lived off Mexicali burritos since I was in college, and every chance I get whenever I'm near a vicinicity which had Mexicali.

And so, how could I ever turn down the chance to go back and enjoy my favorite Mexican fast food chain when I was back in the Philippines? A friend of mine asked me to take my choice of dining, and hands down, I chose to be back at Mexicali. It would be interesting to go back to one of my favorite places and see if the burritos are still the same as I remembered them.

One (and the only) dish that I order when I get there is my all absolute favorite, the vegetarian burrito. In a country , and maybe society and culture, that eats mostly meats, most go straight to ordering the steak, pork or chicken burrito. But I've always have a weak digestive system incapable of digesting meats, particularly red meats, on a normal timeframe. Once ingesting meat, I spend the rest of the day burping away shamelessly while my stomach acids churn overtime to breakdown the food, and even by the end of the day, still end up feeling very full - and lousy. Vegetables are perfect for me.

They have a really nice vegetable burrito. Supposedly, they're grilled and included into the burrito, but I've always thought that they do "cheat" a little and sautee them instead. But I've never been to their kitchens, I'm not quite sure about this, so don't take my word. Regardless, they have this very nice combination of eggplant, cucumber, garlic spiced in such a way that's just mellow to the palate without coming on too strong. Their rice within the burrito is slightly lumpy in a Aristocrat java rice sort of way, and one suspects they may have included saffron into the rice cooking process, but frankly, I don't think so. But it sure tastes like it. Not that THAT'S a problem, its actually very nice. They do include a bit of salsa and some lettuce to brighten the whole thing up, and the soft tortilla is just about right to pack up the whole thing into a nice, handy, ready-to-go-anywhere-to-be-eaten warm burrito.

Bite into it, and all the juices do come out, but not in a messy sort of way. They're just right.

Coupled with a small side dish of salsa and toasted tortillas, and we're just about ready to have a good, quick, satisfying meal.

They do pack a punch, and I'm really satisfied that my friend suggested I pick the dinner venue. With a great food and an even greater companion and conversation to go along with it, dinner was a very satisfying experience. Can't wait to be back there again with friends.

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 7: Attending the Class)

Turns out I am getting be a better deal than I previously thought.

I arrived at Oracle Philippines Office located along Makati Avenue Corner Buendia at Pacific Star Building and up to the 19th Floor on the first day, armed with the determination to get through the 5 day, 8 hour "work" week. (The class is from 9-5, including lunch)

The day went by without any problems, but I have a few things I'd like to comment on for my first day in class:


(1) The "snack" time previously mentioned to me by the Oracle University contact, Marianne Decena, seemed to be an understatement. There was one in the morning, and one in the afternoon, and suffice to say, the "snacks" seemed more like meals: For the first day, morning, we had a huge clubhouse sandwich, and for the afternoon, it was a take out of McDonald's speghetti. Both "snacks" were coupled with either complimentary water, iced tea, or orange juice. Seemed like a good deal.

(2) There was a nice Nescafe dispenser right before entering the classrooms which offered selections between cappucino, cafe latte and hot chocolate (there were other selections but I didn't take note of them as they didn't interest me all that much). I had as much fun time looking at the dispensing machine making my hot chocolate as drinking it, as it was really tasted wonderful. (Ok, it had a lot of sugar, but it still tasted like hot chocolate as comparable to a Starbucks ordered one. And this one is freebie, and in unlimited quantities, too!)

(3) Surprisingly, our instructor was from Oracle Hong Kong! This was a big plus on my part, as mentioned previously, I was considering taking up the classes in Oracle Hong Kong, but being put off by the price tag, selected the one in Oracle Philippines instead. So in reality, I'm just about getting the same stuff and instruction quality as if I've attended the Hong Kong based class!

(4) It seemed that there is a slight difference in the classroom time between Philippines and Hong Kong, as mentioned by the Hong Kong instructor, Wilson Yeung. Turns out, Hong Kong only had 6 hours worth of classroom time per day, as compared to the Philippine version, which was 7 hours. So I'm actually getting more out of my buck! (Ok more doesnt necessarily mean better, but its still a plus. I get to spend more of my money on firing questions at the instructor, as well as using up Oracle company resources. You can tell from my reasoning that I absolutely like bargain deals, don't you?)

(5) Contrary to what I expected, all the Oracle databases were running on Red Hat Linux Enterprise. This made me quite much at home with the environment, as opposed to a Windows based version (I absolutely hate the MS-DOS commandline) as I live off command lines more than GUI interfaces. Additionally, I also get to tinker with Red Hat Linux Enterprise, as most of my environments are based on UNIX. They are almost the same, but still also different in many ways. This was a good opportunity to see what differences abound between them, as well as other Linux distributions like Fedora, Slackware and Debian, since I've been trying to install and tinker with Linux distributions for the past few months.

(6) Also, luckily, I was glad that Oracle delivered a Hong Kong based instructor, as say, opposed to aSingaporean or Indian based instructor. This is in light of the fact that at the very first day of the class, all my other workshop colleagues where abosolutely complaining on the difficulty of understanding the Hong Kong english accent, and barely understanding a word of what he was saying. I, on the other hand, having lived in Hong Kong for quite sometime, was perfectly at home with his accent, and pace (Hong Kongers lived and strive to be fast, fast and FAST at everything they do, including talking)

(7) I seemed to also have picked up on naturally occuring cantonese words while I talk, and it was a great thing to have to be able to talk unconsciously and naturally to someone without them actually wondering or guessing what you are actually saying between snippets of english and cantonese.


Having said all that, it would seem that this is going to be a very entertaining and enlightening workshop after all, despite the fact that I'd be sitting on my ass for the next five days for 8 hours straight and being flooded with all the technical details that refer to Oracle. Hey, even a DBA girl needs a break once in a while. :)

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 6: Lo Behold! Vacancies!)

I must be luckier than I thought.

I contacted 2 travel agencies (one for my office's travel agency, another for my aunt's where she used to work at) and it turns out there are seats available!

As it turns out, flight seats may have been blocked for each travel agency, and I was lucky enough to contact 2 travel agencies that seemed to have priority quotas, despite the indication in the Cathay Pacific website saying that there are no more seats left. After heaving a sigh of relief, I confirmed my flight back home.

Things are turning out to be coming along fine despite the many false hiccups I've gotten along the way. This is turning out to be a fine upcoming Christmas season after all...

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 5: No Flight Seats Available)

So far so good: I've already fulfilled one of the three things needed to complete my OCP certification(passing the OCA exam), and the second requirement (the Oracle class) is already underway. But its still half fulfilled, at best, because there's also arrangements that needed to be made to actually physically BE in the class, even with an enrollment and seat already reserved. It wouldn't do any good to be able to have a seat in the class when I can't catch a flight back to the Philippines, now, can I?

I still had to book a flight back to the Philippines, and since it was December, a notoriously peak season when Filipino OFWs were cramming up to get home to loved ones for the Christmas holidays, my first inquiries for an available was met with frustration. The ideal time to go back was on the Friday the week before the class starts, so I can maximize my trip to include enough time to meet with friends and relatives. Normally I like taking the trip with Cathay Pacific, as they have the earliest flight back to Hong Kong, at 6:50am departure, where I usually go straight from the airport to the office upon my arrival at around 8:50am. There were no problems for the return trip, but as it turns out, there were no available departure flights for Cathay Pacific from Thursday to Sunday this week to get back to the Philippines, at least according to their online website.

Actually, I checked their website on Monday night, and there were still seats left for Saturday and Sunday morning, albeit the Friday last flight trips were full. The morning after, checking it returned me with a "full" indicator for all flights from Thursday to Sunday, in which I almost panicked.

So near, and yet so far. Its as if a monkey wrench is being thrown at my way for every possible milestone that I need to cover for this race. I will be inquiring directly to travel agencies today to see if by any lucky chance there are still unoccupied or last minute backouts left for Cathay Pacific flights. The way I was thinking, Cathay Pacific is the costliest and most expensive in terms of ride back home to the Philippines, as other carrier flights to the Philippines - namely, Philippine Airline and Cebu Pacific - are a whole lot cheaper and logically would usually be the first choice for throngs of OFWs planning to go back to the Philippines (save money more that way). To hear that Cathay Pacific is fully booked... well, it doesn't seem to leave much hope that the other carriers would still have seats left.

Why? Why? WHY?

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 4: Seats Available, OCA status)

A slight glimmer of hope. It was given especially when I heard that my name was put second on a short waitlist on the Oracle class, despite that I was informed a few days earlier that the class was full. But I was bracing for the worst. With my plans seemingly ruined last week of news of non-available Oracle class seats, regardless, I resolved to take the OCA test with the off chance opportunity that some seats for the class would clear up.

Its now exactly one week before the actual class would start, and still without class confirmation (but with inquiries from Oracle Philippines to see if I might still be interested in attending the class) I took the OCA test on a Monday night on December 5 at 5:45pm in a nearby Prometric test center across my office building.

And I passed :)

The very next day I answered the inquiries for the Oracle class, as it seems that a couple of students backed out on the class. I could not believe my good fortune, but the race wasn't over yet. There's still the matter of reserving flight seats back home...

A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 3: No Available Seats for Class!)

Two weeks before the actual class, I learned that the Oracle10g Administration Workshop 2 December class was already full, as normally a class only accommodated 15 people.

Now I'm disraught with frustration, anxiety and aghast. I'm already putting my hair out of their roots with my frustration.

I was desperately hoping that the class would not become full. I was actually not worried about this little point initially, as I thought that not many would take these classes, and therefore I was safe to delay this as long as I want, at least until a week before the actual class starts.

Now that I've received news that the class only accommodated 15 people, and that they're full, I'm already ready to throw the gauntlet down... It seems that there's no chance in world I'd be able to take the class and the OCP certification. The most that I can do is to keep on studying on my own for the second exam (1Z0-043) without any supervision, and trust me, it is a huge topic and coverage to contend with.

If I actually pass the exam, I'd have to relate to any would be employers that I'm "unofficially" a OCP certified DBA, as I am merely lacking to attend a requirement class. Although it would still be something, it doesn't pack as much punch as relating that I'm a certified, official OCP DBA. I don't even think I can write it down in my resume, as it would look really wimpy and stretching it thin to mention something like that.

Oh for the love of.... ! This is so frustrating! So little so late... and so near and yet so far.

Frustrating!

Hambug. I'll just study by myself and then see what happens...