Medical Mission in Bataan

Anything illness related is starting to become close to my heart especially after my surgery. So when I received an email calling for invitations to a medical mission sponsored by my company, I signed up for it. The medical mission was in Bataan, we rode a van from Tower 1 in Makati to Anvaya Cove first, where we started loading the medicine into our bags, as we needed to trek up to the mountain to the site. I took some pictures along the way.

The greenery was so beautiful! It was so lush. Its the hike up that almost killed me. Literally!

When we got up to the village, I was assigned to be a doctor's assistant. We entertained over 300 villagers. Wow! We were so busy, nobody was able to eat lunch!

A lot of the villagers had TB, and the kids and some parents had scabies. I spent the entire day with an N90 mask, which made breathing so difficult. We were in the site from noon to afternoon, so had to bear the heat of the sun. After a long day, we had a group picture taken. 

I forgot my eyeglasses in the administration office of Anvaya Cove, so I had no choice but to wear my sunglasses down the whole day, as these had my prescription grade as well. The hike down was equally tough, because the mountain slope by far is the steepest I've seen. Okay, okay, I haven't been to any other mountain, and I don't understand how other people can enjoy doing this.

Here are pictures of the descent.

The mountainside was beautiful, and like I told my officemates, I wouldn't mind living there, provided there's internet, cable TV, and airconditioning.

Will keep you guys posted for more!

Late Lunch at Yabu in Megamall

Since I was on leave the day after my birthday to rest from the all-night party, Danny and I decided to go to Megamall to do some early-Christmas shopping. It was a pretty good decision to go there, as there weren't a lot of people there during weekdays. That's the way Megamall should be experienced, sans the mad and scary mob.

We got carried away with the shopping, had to look for gifts from so many people, we realized it was getting late and we haven't eaten lunch. Since we were already in Megamall, we decided to try the new Japanese restaurant there. At first, we didn't know what the name of the restaurant was, and we spent a good few minutes searching for it in the atrium area of the mall. It was a good thing I recognized the comic-book style artworks on the restaurant's walls from the blog that had featured it.

Yes, since we seldom go to Megamall, we ate at Yabu, to ensure that it would be a meaningful malling experience for us.

It was rather late, so there weren't any diners except us, YAY! It gave me a chance to take a picture of the restaurant's interior.

The condiments tray was so cute! Look at the salt holder, it's shaped like a pig! How cute is that?

Another special thing about the restaurant, you have to make your own Katsudon sauce. Here are the instructions:

So this is me trying to make my own Katsu sauce. I ground the sesame seeds. It isn't that tough, because you just have to turn the mortar on the little bowl, and it will grind on its own because of the grooves embedded on the bowl.

Then you put the katsu sauce mix into the ground sesame seeds. The wooden ladle was so cute!

We ordered side dishes, potato salad, and seaweed salad. Yum!

And the main course, Hire and Seafood Katsu Set! The cabbage salad is refillable. The salad dressing was part of the condiments tray. It was so delicious! The hire was very tender, and the katsu breading was excellent.

Will truly miss Yabu in Megamall. It's so sad they still don't have branches in either the Fort or Makati. A restaurant this yummy should be located in the CBD as well.

For everyone's reference:

Yabu: House of Katsu
2nd Floor The Atrium, SM Megamall,
EDSA cor. Julia Vargas Avenue,
Mandaluyong
tel. no. 576.3900

Birthday Dinner at Sugi Greenbelt

Before hitting Red Box Greenbelt for a mini-conert with Danny, Derek, and Austin, we had dinner at... Sugi Greenbelt!

Yes, I know, I know, you all must be bored with Sugi Greenbelt by now, but the sale is still ongoing, and honestly, with the quality Japanese dishes we're getting at 50%, why dine anywhere else?

It was Derek and Austin's first time to avail of the dinner-sale in Sugi, so most of what was ordered was their choice. Our first appetizer is Nama Harumaki or Japanese Fresh Spring Roll with Kani and Spicy Tuna. Absolutely delicious!

It was followed by our 2nd appetizer, Spider Roll. It has soft-shell crab, asparagus, and avocado.

The next appetizer was the Tiger Roll, which contained fresh salmon and Japanese grilled eel, asparagus, and egg.

We ordered two types of Onigiri, one was the Yaki Onigiri:

And the other one was Tarako Onigiri:

This time around, we ordered Cha Soba, which was cold green tea noodles with mushrooms and seven spices.

The main courses were chicken, Tori Kuwayaki, beef, Samurai Steak, and Shiitake Teppanyaki.

The Tori Kuwayaki was marinated chicken, which tasted a lot like Bonchon.

As ordered by Derek, we also enjoyed Shiitake Teppanyaki.

And the special Samurai Steak, cooked in a very special sauce

This, I'm sure, is not the last time we will be eating in Sugi Greenbelt, so I will be posting more pictures from them rather soon!

Best Birthday Gift Picture

I've been so busy with the aftermath of my birthday, I have not been able to update the blog the past few days. I need to do some mass postings tonight then, just to catch up.

I was telling everybody the other day, I just received a really beautiful birthday gift. I didn't take a picture of the shoe anymore, as I've been using it for 2 days already, so I looked online for pictures of the shoe. Thank you so much for the gift Danny!

So what is the gift? It's a Yohji Yamamoto collaboration with Adidas!

borrowed from polyvore.com

I love it so much! I adore Y3! Here's a different picture of the shoe.

borrowed from shopstyle.com

The 2nd picture is the wool version of the shoe, though, I think.

Medical Mission in Anvaya

On my way to a medical mission in Anvaya Cove. Will post pictures of Sunday and Monday night when I am freed up tomorrow. Keep y'all posted!

Best Birthday Gift!

It's official! It's my birthday, and I just received the best birthday gift! Will post pictures later!

In Love with Simply Thai!

Had my pre-birthday dinner at Simply Thai in Greenbelt 5.

Definitely not my first time to eat here. First instance was a light dinner though. This time around, since it is my last few hours as a 25*-year old, it was time to splurge! (*not the author's real age.) When Danny and I arrived 6:15PM-ish, Derek was already there. Unfortunately, Austin couldn't make it to the pre-birthday dinner, but we'll all meet up for dinner and singing tomorrow.

I love the interior of the restaurant. For those who love to reminisce, it used to be Terrace at the 5th. I'm not sure if the interiors are the same, but it is still pretty homey, which is the vibe I got from Terrace before.

I'm a pretty bad blogger, because I forget to take pictures during appropriate times! Why? The appetizers arrived and I was the first one to dig in, ruining the beautiful set-up the staff had placed before us. Fret not, I managed to steal a snapshot from my own plate, my personal plating of course. For starters we ordered Mieng Kham (a Thai traditional made of prawn, coconut, lemongrass, and peanuts in betel leaves) and Choo Chee Kung + Roti (minced prawn dip and roti bread).

We ordered Schweppes Manao Soda for drinks. I know this is exclusive to them only.

We ordered Phad Thai in Egg Net, LOVE! How do they make the egg into that net shape?

The Duck Fried Rice with Thai Holy Basil, was a perfect complement to the the main dishes we ordered. Danny noted that the fried rice, even with the duck, was not oily at all! Totally unlike the duck we had in Hong Kong!

We ordered the Black Pepper Soft-Shell Crab. I'm a total sucker for soft-shell crabs, even if it means having to brave John and Yoko for them.

Pork Confit with Chili Caramel Sauce and Apple-slaw was dee-vine! I loved the apple-slaw, it's so totally not coleslaw and whatever messy mayonnaise it comes with.

And my ultimate favorite main dish for the evening, the Squid and Shrimp Nam Prik Pao. I totally love this! It's absolutely perfect!

For dessert, we ordered, Sticky Rice with Mango, and the Red Rubies (which are red water chestnuts), which unfortunately I wasn't able to take a picture of. But I did take a picture of the Simply Thai's Nest, which is absolutely dee-vine!

Will keep you posted for tomorrow's party pictures!

For everyone's reference:

Simply Thai
G/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center,
Makati City
tel. no. 729.0860

Lunch at Toni and Guy/6750

Because my schedule for this evening all of a sudden took a different turn, I have to make adjustments to some appointments. Unfortunately, lunch becomes affected because of that. I was supposed to have my haircut at 5:00PM, but Derek called and we will be going to an event in Cubao later.

Hurriedly, I had to call Toni and Guy to check if Noel was available at 12:00PM, and luckily he is! I can't celebrate my birthday weekend with my hair looking like a mess, after all. So this is the 3rd time this year that I missed my lunch due to a hair emergency. I'm not worried at all how the haircut is going to turn out (obviously, since I'm not even looking at the mirror but at the iPad screen), as Noel knows how to take care of my hair better than I do. He's been doing so for quite some time already.

Will definitely keep you guys posted on how the event this evening turns out, and how my birthday weekend will fare. See y'all around!

Ending Another Office Day

I got inspired to take some photos of my desk before I left the office kanina. I just had the urge to fix the desk before I left for the day, and after seeing how organized my desk was, felt the urge to share it to everyone. I must warn you, this is my definition of organized already. So here we go:

I already told you that I had just purchased this pretty snakeskin desk pad. Well, here's a picture of my iPad happily sitting on it:

Yikes, you can see the paper bags from shopping adventures peeking out from under the desk! Oh well. Took a picture of the Samsung LCD screen of the desktop. I really don't know how large it is, 17"? I dunno. I changed the wallpaper today, placed a Christmas-themed wallpaper. Apparently, it is very difficult to look for HD wallpapers online.

I went crazy purchasing pencils from National Bookstore. I bought a box. Couldn't find the Mongol pencils of yesteryear, and they did not have any Treehugger pencils either. I ended up getting Faber-Castell. I love cordless phones, so naturally, I had to bring my own cordless phone for my desk, as the desk only came with one of those cheap default wired landlines given by the telephone company. The next shot is going to be weird because...

...you guys are going to realize that, yes, I have 4 planners. Four planners I seldom use. I usually buy a lot of planners at the start of every year, and for the 1st half of the year, would religiously fill it out with my meetings. Why 4 planners though? The blue one at the bottom is for meetings and is usually left on the desk. The one on top of it is a 2011 Coffee Bean planner, which is filled with social engagements, all non-work related. The one on top of that is a grey 2011 planner, which includes all work and school related engagements, and which I bring with me. The topmost planner is a 2012 Coffee Bean planner, that was just given to me during a morning meeting. Actually, the reason why I don't write on the planners... because I ended up buying an iPad this year. No, I don't leave a red Blackberry on top of the desk, it's a paperweight made from the casing of an old Blackberry of mine.

Wait, it gets worse:

The blue ottoman beside my desk is for my bags. I used to bring office bags with no wheels, and I hated putting them on the floor because it would be so difficult to drag them around. So I found this ottoman that had wheels, which made it easier for me to pull the bags closer to me. However, I use a Muji bag with wheels now, so since the ottoman is not being used, I filled it with boxes of gifts for Christmas. I was kinda hoping also that it would encourage people to give me gifts for Christmas, when they see that my desk is so filled with gifts!