Concert in the park

There's some musical thing happening in Velasquez Park. The music sounds like this, but on repeat. It was nice at first until the music started becoming louder and louder. I can't see the park from my room but I really felt like I was right in front of the stage. That's how loud it was.

Grub review: The Bread Bag

Like yogurt, I never used to be fond of Ortigas. I always found its interlocking streets and gargantuan chunks of concrete, steel, and glass strangely stressful. But lately, I've been finding myself loving, as a lil boy calls it, "The OC." One of the reasons why I'm beginning to have this affair with Ortigas is the interesting food finds. Unlike Makati where most food haunts are found in most heavily commercial locations, Ortigas has theirs conveniently peppered all over the city. One of them is Bread Bag Pandesal Bar in Ortigas Home Depot. I love pandesal and I think putting up a place like this is completely brilliant. The concept is simple: get freshly baked giant pandesal then load it with a selection of savory variants. The morning I went with the Ortigan, there were only 3 customers, with one waiting for his take away (they deliver, ring em up 703 7764). The selection isn't wide so its easy to choose what to order. Although service was quite slow (I'm guessing they baked a fresh batch of bread) the wait was worth it. I had a bread bowl of cream of chicken and Pan ala Cubana while the Ortigan had... something I can't remember. Both our dishes came with chips and sauce. I also had a nice, hot cup of hot chocolate. Coffee is also available. But I don't drink coffee because it gives me the runs. Everything is below P100 so its very, very recessionista friendly. Unless you're really cheap then you can go to Jullie's bake shop in Kapitolyo or something. If you fall in love with the baseball-sized pandesal, you can buy a 50g version at P6 each. For those health buffs, they also make it in wheat at P7 a piece. The Bread Bad Pandesal Bar is located in Unit 20A/ 21A, Ortigas Home Depot J. Vargas St. Pasig City www.thebreadbagpandesal.com

Shoeses

Sometime last year, I had a feeling these would be back in style. I saw several pairs at Rockport before but wasn't too sold on the designs. They looked too Bass. Which aren't bad at all. I just don't want to look like a father of three. Does anyone know where I can buy a pair (or two. fine, three) here in the third world? My gut is telling me Tretorns will be the next shoe trend.

Closet case

It's not easy having to shuttle to and from two houses. First, you have to beat the traffic to Alabang and Makati. Its even worse now with the ongoing construction of the skyway. Then, if you forget something you'd have to wish someone hasn't left so they could bring it to the condo. Its happened countless times - leaving a blazer, phone, pair of shoes, or a book. Sometimes I wish I had two of everything but that'll just be too impractical. Now if only we had a nifty service like Garde Robe.

"Based in New York City, Garde Robe is the world’s premier wardrobe storage and maintenance service. Garde Robe provides first-class storage, same-day delivery, Cyber Closet wardrobe catalogs and an array of thoughtful services for New York residents, frequent travelers and fashion designers."

So what they do is, they get all the stuff you don't wear (or haven't worn and don't plan to yet), photograph and catalogue them, then store them in a state of the art, temperature controlled loft. If you decide to wear something at a certain time, all you need to do is ring em 90 minutes prior and they'll hand deliver it anywhere in the city. Of course, this city is also known as New York. Where interesting biz ideas like this come to life.

Someone at work said: "How come nobody told me we have a lunch for _________ at Shakey's? Im wearing Anna Sui today and it's not right to wear it in Shakey's."

Or something like that.

Ten best things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk

Lifted from Gino's Tumblr: 10. “They told me at the Blood Bank this might happen.”

9. “This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you sent me to.”

8. “Whew! Guess I left the top off the Whiteout. You probably got here just in time”.

7. “I wasn’t sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new business strategy.”

6. “I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance.”

5. “I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?”

4. “Well! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out how to handle that big accounting problem.”

3. “Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down real close?”

2. “Who put decaf in the wrong pot?!?”

And the NUMBER ONE best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk!

1. Raise your head slowly and say, “…in Jesus name, Amen.”

The secret to beautiful skin is lying on a s**tload of rose petals.

I hate that in this country, most drivers think that the pedestrian lane is just a road design.

Dead meat

There's a photo of Claudine Barretto's Adobong Ilonggo across my desk. Everytime I see it (which is like, every 5 minutes), it makes me want to drive to Hacienda, this nice restaurant Paolo and I ate in last month, and hoover the different kinds of adobo they serve there. Unfortunately, I can't have meat today because its Ash Wednesday. To think just this morning, I told the maid to send me a huge serving of caramelized spam for lunch. Bummer. Who had the bright idea of having Catholics skip meat today anyway? It must have been a vegan's idea. Could it have been cigarettes, chocolate (errr..), soda, coffee, or something more addictive instead?

Tag, you're it

This is to continue the 25 Things that seems to be all the rage in Facebook. Because I'm too lazy to think of anything else to update my (2) readers about. 26. I like the smell of coffee but don't drink the stuff because it gives me the runs. 27. I took Algebra three times. Math is my Waterloo. 28. I can eat callos every single day for a whole month. 29. I used to be obsessed with keeping my skin clear that I'd go for a facial every other day after school. 30. I love puppies. 31. I LOVE pho. 32. I hate the sight of dust on my car's dashboard. 33. I also hate seeing watermarks. 34. I find it weird hanging out with my parents in their room. So I hardly do. 35. I like making the a/c vent or electric fan face me when I sleep. 36. My hair can be a nuisance. 37. I've always found Publishing interesting. 38. Contrary to what people may think, I'm always on a tight budget. 39. I hate being forgetful. 40. I like touching things. 41. I wore braces for 4 years. The rubber thingamajigs were always either grey, clear, or blue. 42. I used to secretly visit my lola who had alzheimer's and ask how she was doing. Of course, I don't think she knew who I was but it felt good checking up on her. 43. The only reason why I wanted to visit Macau when I was a kid was because that was where they used to make Matchboxes. 44. I like receiving handwritten letters or notes. 45. I don't understand how people can say Coke Zero tastes like regular Coke. 46. I easily get distracted. 47. I turned some of my white roundneck undershirts into vneck with lower necklines because I hate seeing my undershirt peep over the second button of my dress shirts. 48. I prefer Pepsi over Coca Cola 49. I added an extra hole in all my Hermes belts because I didn't want Mr Quickie or Besa's to touch them. So I did it myself. I should have made them do it. 50. I never drink more than 3 bottles of beer or 5 glasses of wine.