More Marina Ceriola Paintings

Marina contacted me Saturday morning - she has paintings for sale! She sent me pictures of 6 paintings, but these are the ones that I had reserved:

Both are oil on canvas, and measures 18" x 24". 

I messaged her today asking when she can pass by the office so I can pay for these already. 

The 2nd painting is a reproduction of The First Mourning by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. 

I had already given a heads up to Frameworks Homefront that I will going to them on Saturday to have these 2 paintings framed - I started researching online as well on Renaissance-style frames, in order to pay homage to Bouguereau. Frameworks was suggesting that I use a silver frame instead of gold, but I'm still partial to gold, what do you guys think? 

White Antibes by Potentilla Home Fragrances

This is going to be my first post on the scents that I use for my oil burner/oil warmer.

White Antibes is Honeydew Melon

Surprisingly, I didn't start off with my go-to brand, Itsom. I find that in selecting the perfect scent for my oil burners, I have to use essential oils that are more potent. Lavender may smell the same regardless of the brand of the essential oil, but some manufacturers create that special potent formula, which has a lingering effect when placed on the burner, vs. the watered-down versions that are easily available. And, it isn't really about the price, because, sometimes, the potent essential oils are quite reasonably priced. I digress, because, I discovered last December another brand of burner fragrance oil, that although at first sniff may not seem to be potent enough to linger in the room, actually resonates the air with vibrant notes.

I chanced upon Potentilla's kiosk in Robinson's Magnolia while waiting for Kim to finish having his  hair rebonded. Their booth was on the topmost level of the mall, and my attention was first caught because there seemed to be a lot of people purchasing bottles.

They sold an array of room scents, from reed diffusers to water soluble fragrances, to oil burner fragrances.

I looked at the names of their scents, and with names like Mint Chai, Tea Party, and Baby Powder, I knew that their little bottles held refreshing new notes compared to the usual scents that are readily available elsewhere.

And then there was White Antibes. It was love at first whiff. The scent was mostly composed of honeydew melon. Milky. Sweet. Fresh. Tinge of fruitiness. Smooth all the way.

Here's the White Antibes bottle with tealight oil burners I seldom use

My theory about ensuring to purchase the potent smelling oils were completely thrown out the window, because here was a scent that didn't seem to have enough punch to fill my room, and yet, I wanted it.

I bought it. It was a tad bit pricey compared to Itsom, which can be had for less than a hundred bucks in Landmark, but it was a scent I knew I couldn't get off my head. I have had no regrets.

Now the reason I'm posting about this, is because I have had a bad day at work. I was in the office at 6AM, and I got home at 1AM the following day. And as soon as I got into my room, I cleaned out the Itsom Green Tea scent on the dishes of my oil burners, and I put in White Antibes, and all of a sudden, I feel at peace. The stress from the day is gone. It smells like an easy Sunday brunch in the lanai, at 2AM in my bedroom.

The scent is not overpowering. It doesn't confuse your senses. It calms you. It slows down your thoughts.

And I love it. If Potentilla were to cancel this scent, I would hoard every last drop of it, just to ensure I would have a good enough supply.

And so I just wanted to share.

Well, and if you're interested and happen to chance by Robinson's Magnolia, or their 2nd branch in Glorietta 2, then do give White Antibes a shot.

Farthest shot for the night!

Potentilla Home Fragrances
L3 Robinsons Magnolia, Aurora Boulevard cor. Dona Hemady
New Manila, Quezon City
0917.528.1294

Saboten at Serendra

Finally, after having craved for this for so long, I finally tried Saboten with Derek. In preparation for the long weekend, I had texted Derek to meet me for dinner, and insisted that we eat at Saboten so that I could finally get the craving out of my system.

Since I now work in One Serendra, I have waited for the restaurant that replaced Silk at Thai to open since the start of the year. And upon discovering that it was going to be another Japanese cutlet restaurant, I was ecstatic and impatient to be able to finally sink my teeth into its offerings. 

So I've eaten at Yabu in Megamall, and have raved about the experience. I also tried the affordable yet delectable Katsu Cafe opened by Ateneo high school classmated (GO D2000 BOYS!) in the Katipunan area... and now, I get the chance to try the original Japanese cutlet, Saboten!

Derek picked me up from my office and we made a rather short walk to Saboten. Can you imagine my willpower? This restaurant has been staring me in the face for 2 months, and it was only now that I ate there.

Saboten is franchised by Raintree Restaurants, the group that brought you Stella, Chelsea, Momo, and Rocket Room. I actually met a couple of weeks back with some of their managers because we were applying for a send-bill arrangement for our complex.

 I love what they did to their ceiling. Note the Sakura detail peeking out of the the trellis-type beams.

Cute details for the walls also. And if you're just two in your dinner party, don't worry, they have rather large tables for two people. We were quite luck to get a booth good for two. Bear in mind that this restaurant does not accept reservations, so better try to come early.

The sets come with unlimited cabbage-salad, miso soup, Japanese rice, and pickled vegetables. So you might think that they're rather expensive than normal, or compared to the local Katsudon restaurants, but you really get value for your money. And, as I always say, it's like eating in a buffet where you don't have to stand up.

The sets also come with bottomless green tea.

The pot contains the Katsudon sauce which you pour over the sesame seeds that they will let you grind. The cruets contain the dressing for the salad.

Here's a snapshot of their cute mortar.

I ordered the Saboten Special Set, which gave me a taste of their deep-fried shrimp, the loin and tenderloin cutlet, and the crab croquette. The crab croquette's filling was so rich!

Derek ordered the Clay Pot Chicken Set. It looked so amazing!

If you want to try the special katsu of Saboten, please feel free to drop by their Serendra branch:

Saboten
G/F Serendra Retail, Mckinley Parkway
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig (or Makati)
tel no. 02.625.2000

I Know What You Did Last Summer

What did I do last summer? I went to Hong Kong!

To kick off this blog, and since I have a lot of pictures in my laptop and it needs unloading in a media other than Facebook, here's a photo collection of my Hong Kong trip this year's holy week. I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures because I ended up using the camera of the 4th Generation iPod Touch I had recently purchased for that trip.

That's the chandelier in the lobby of Holiday Inn Golden Mile.

And this is me waiting to be checked in at the lobby of the hotel.

What's the first thing you do when you've checked in and have the entire of Hong Kong as your playground? Well, if you're me, you eat first, so you have energy to go mall-hopping. So here's what the first meal in Hong Kong consisted of:

Ordering took a lot of getting used to, since I was always converting the prices to Philippine Peso. But we were able to order. Here's the before shot of the food:

And here's the after shot.. this is the effect of not-so-good food served during the Cathay Pacific flight. I mean seriously, Chicken Adobo Roll?

I'll be posting the mall-hopping up next. Keep you guys posted!