What I'm Loving Now - All Things Lemon!

Have you seen the current window displays in clothing stores? I love this summer season's color palette: yummy sorbet colors of mint, melon, blush, and lemon! They are so wonderful to look at, and it makes you forget about the oppressive heat even for a while.

But let me focus on lemon for now. While I was at the office pantry one morning, I realized that I have developed a taste for the fruit, the color, even the person.

I've been watching the US TV series Hart of Dixie, and I am in love with Lemon Breeland, played by Jamie King. I love Zoe Hart as well, but there's just something about Lemon that makes you want to root for her. What I love most are her outfits. I want to raid her closet! We really need to give props to the show's stylist. Lemon always looks so put-together, lady-like and fresh. I also love Lemon's hair and glowing skin. I think Jamie King plays the part so well. One scene that comes to mind is when she tried to seduce that dentist that Ruby was flirting with. All she had to do was remove her cardigan, show off her shoulders, look up innocently from her curled lashes, and snap! The dentist followed her out like a puppy.

Here are some of Lemon's looks that I love:

Another lemon thing I'm loving right now is The Body Shop's Sweet Lemon bath products. I've been swimming and working out before work so I needed something to up the moisturizing ante. Good thing I got this set from my mom (thanks mom!), and I immediately used the shower gel and the body butter. They smell so good! Throughout the day at work I keep smelling myself haha. I smell and feel so clean. Plus the body butter doesn't feel sticky at all.

And lastly, I got these awesome garter flats from Tonic. The design is called Sari, and it's specially-designed for summer. Just looking at them instantly perks me up. They have other colors available but I gravitated toward this pair the most. And they're comfortable too! Yesterday I went to their private sale at The Grove and couldn't resist buying sandals for my two nieces. You can order online or visit their stores. The owner Kim is also a delight to transact with. :)

That's it! Hopefully this gets to be a regular thing on the blog, me sharing things I'm loving at the moment. How about you, what are you loving now? :)

P.S. How can I forget my blog's layout! It's lemon-inspired too. :)

Travel Bits: Coron, Palawan (Day 2)

(Click here for our Day 1 in Coron!)

We were ready and excited for our second day in Coron. We had a delicious complimentary breakfast and then took our showers. Our agenda for the day was to go island hopping and snorkeling. 

From the resort, we rode our service tricycle and went to town proper, where we then transferred to the rented boat that would take us island hopping. This was a group tour, and there were other tourists already waiting when we arrived. We waited for a couple more, then off we went to our first spot: the Kayangan Lake. And boy, what a sight to see!

Before we got to the beauteous  lake, we first had to complete a steep climb. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I haven't had exercise in years so it was really tough for me to do it. I kept stopping to catch my breath, and let other people go ahead of me. I eventually reached the top though, and it offered a breathtaking view of the sea. We stopped for photos, and then went down to the other side of the rocks, where Kayangan Lake was. 

And the minute you see the lake, you'd forget you're in the Philippines. The clearest water and most picturesque view I have ever seen in person. It was like discovering a hidden gem, and I smiled because it was right in my own country! How lucky are we?

I am a water baby, and I couldn't wait to jump in. Our tour guide was quick to say that we needed to wear our life vests at all times. I'm a good swimmer but I was afraid of getting cramps and causing trouble, so I wore my vest then excitedly went in. Aaaaah. I was home. 

Our tour guide let us into a cave, and then he told us to practice breathing with our snorkels there because there was still no current. We went snorkeling for about half an hour before we left. We were just on our first destination and I was already elated with everything I saw! 

We then proceeded to another island, for more awesome sea treasures. Corals of all colors imaginable (even neon ones), schools of fish, sea urchins, starfishes, sea weeds, and other things. Sigh. You can't help but marvel at God's hand. Nature is a gift that keeps on giving. I wish I had an underwater camera so I could show you photos of all the beauty we saw.

We had our picnic lunch at Banol Beach. It was a little island with coarse white sand and rock formations. Our lunch was another seafood feast, with large fish, squid, and lots of lato (seaweed) salad. We also had pork liempo and grilled chicken. The foreigner tourists asked us about the lato, and one of the Russian ladies brought out her baon of red chili or siling labuyo and passed the little plastic bag around. I'm not a fan of spicy food, so I passed.

After a heavy lunch, we were allowed to explore the island and of course, take lots of pictures! It was the middle of noon so the sun was blazing. I think this was why we got sunburned. Or also because we only applied sunblock once, haha!

More island hopping ensued. By the the time we were through, we were all tired and ready to sleep! We got back to the town proper before six pm, but we didn't get out of the boat. We were to be sent to Castaway, another remote island where we will spend the night. Sounds exciting, yes? Stay tuned for my review of Castaway in another entry!

We had arranged for our dinner the previous night, and we were served crabs! Believe me, one of the best things about this trip is the food. Such a fun night, eating crabs and fish with our hands, dining under the moonlight with the sea breeze cooling our sunburned skin. 

After chatting a bit, I turned in early and fell asleep. I drifted in and out of sleep and heard Niña and Jay talking, and then they were complaining that the generator has shut down and there were no lights! We were told the generator would shut down at midnight, but that was only 10:30pm. That forced them to fall asleep! 

Stay tuned for my last post about our Coron trip. :)

Resto Bites: Kasbah

For my birthday, I treated my office friends Mariela and Ten to lunch at Kasbah, The Fort. I got a good deal from Groupon, which included a set lunch for four, for only P1600. It was our first time to eat there, and we weren't disappointed.

Kasbah is located at The Fort Strip, near Bonifacio High Street Central. It's the same building where Fitness First, Keg, and URBN are. The huge wooden doors open up to a loft-type space, with high ceilings and natural light coming in from the huge windows. The restaurant, which can probably accommodate up to 50 people,  also has a bar inside and outside seating where the shishas are smoked.

Just a disclaimer for all my restaurant "reviews": As a diner, I am pretty easy to please. I'm not a picky eater who would dissect each and every ingredient. I can be very particular about the service and the cleanliness, but I can eat at a carinderia or at a 5-star hotel restaurant. So when I say the food is bad, it must be really bad.

But no such thing at Kasbah, because we had flavorful Moroccan dishes. The set lunch was for four but since there were only the three of us, we were stuffed!

First we were served the Hummus Harisa, described on the menu as chickpea with tahini puree. The brown stripes you see on the photo are probably paprika, which added a kick to the appetizer. It came with warm sliced pita. The thing with Morrocan dishes is that they are really filling. You can order this and one kebab and you'll be good.

Also part of the set meal was the Tabbouleh salad. This is one of my favorite dishes! Whenever I eat at a restaurant that has it on the menu, I always order it. It's a simple dish of parsley, tomatoes and mint with a lemon dressing. It's so light and refreshing, I can eat this all day! Kasbah serves their Tabbouleh with couscous, which like I said, makes this dish filling. If you're on a diet, this can be your lunch.

Our meal also came with four glasses of iced tea. Kasbah's iced tea isn't your run-of-the-mill variety. It has a nice flavor that can be a tad sweet. But I'd rather have that than the watered-down kind.

Our main course was a platter of chicken, fish and eggplant topped with a mustard sauce. The chicken was stuffed with prunes, but the spices didn't make the dish taste too sweet. Everything was well-seasoned, and the portions were good for four diners.

We were planning to order Lamb Tagine which is one of their specialties, but we were so full from our lunch there was no more space in our tummies (we had too leave room for dessert though)! Service is also efficient and the waiting time between dishes was just right to allow conversations among our group.

On my next visit, maybe I'd get to try their tagine and their kebabs too!

Kasbah is definitely worth coming back to!

Kasbah, The Fort Strip
7th Avenue Corner Katipunan Circle
Fort Global City
Taguig City, Metro Manila
+6325534499
+639172058802

Who Is This Girl?!

My office mate Marye and I have a big dilemma in our hands. This has been bugging us for weeks! Whenever we think about it, we stop on our tracks, get our phones/computers ready for a screenshot, then think about how to solve this mystery. Hence, this blog entry.

Does anyone know who this girl is?!

She first entered my consciousness when I saw her for the Amway Fun Run poster.

The next time I saw her photo was on the wall of a fast food place in our office building.
I mentioned this to Marye, and I think she remembered it because next thing you know, we were seeing her everywhere!

I saw her on Yahoo:

Marye saw her on Air Asia's in flight magazine:

 I saw her on Sea Air's website:

 Marye saw her on a tarpaulin for Magnolia Flavor House:

 And today on Ensogo's website:

We even saw her on the app 4 Pics 1 Word!

It became a thing for us haha, we need to know who she is and why she is so popular as the poster girl for ads. It seems that she has a lot of stock photos. But it's just weird/funny to see her all the time. Is it because of her infectious smile? I think so.

PLEASE, if you know who she is, do tell!!! It's really important for our peace of mind. :p

P.S. I'm not kidding. I really need to know who she is because it's driving me nuts seeing her everywhere. It's like a puzzle that I need to solve. My mind won't shut up until I know who she is!

UPDATE! Marye and another friend found a link of her stock photo profile. She has the username Maridav.

Here's a screen shot of her profile on 123F:

I googled Maridav, and her profile on Shutterstock came up. It says she is a Photographer/Illustrator/Vector Artist/Videographer. So does she photograph herself in all these situationals?

UPDATE II: My former office mate Jerome, who's now part of Esquire magazine, says they did a feature on her in their April issue. Am I willing to spend 195 pesos to know who she is? Let's see! Hopefully I can find the closure I need. Hahaha!

UPDATE III: A comment on this entry informed me of a Facebook page dedicated to her, and that her name is Ariane. I found a copy of the Esquire issue at my brother's house, and while they had an email interview with her, she still didn't provide her surname. She says she values her privacy. Apparently, she works together with a guy named Martin and do all these shoots. Her father's French-Canadian and her mother is Chinese. So I guess that's that! Ariane, with no surname.

It's Definitely Summer!

This heat is something else, huh? I'm a person who gets cold easily, and I still use a kumot (flat sheet) even when there's no air conditioning. But lately, I often wake up in the middle of the night with my neck and nape sweating, even when my fan is right next to my face. I have to turn on the aircon so I can fall back to sleep! And don't even get me started on going outside. I'm lucky I stay in the office most of the day. The five-minute walk from the MRT station to the office is horrible.Make sure to hydrate often! I just saw a headline that a councilor re-electionist died of heat stroke in Camarines Sur.

Summer goodies! Juicy strawberries & my ultimate comfort food: Good Shepherd Ube Jam.

Speaking of hydration, my mom just came from Baguio and she brought home strawberries for me. And that only calls for one thing: Strawberry Smoothies! :) It is so refreshing and what I like most about my homemade smoothie is it doesn't contain the syrup (read: liquid sugar) that most commercial fruit shake stalls use. Here are the four simple ingredients for my strawberry smoothie: fresh strawberries, ice, milk, and honey! Easy peasy.

Make your fruit smoothies at home! It's cheaper and healthier.

Now on to the real point of this entry. When I'm feeling down, I usually turn to this quote from Rita Mae Brown's Hiss of Death:

photo from Pinterest

And right now, I have two of the three things: someone to love (my boyfriend) and something to look forward to (an upcoming trip abroad). I just need something to do! No, my work doesn't count. We need to learn something new every day.

It's perfect because this summer, so many classes and workshops are happening that you just need to choose what interests you and voila! You add something to your noggin' and you make productive use of your time.

I am so excited because I've signed up for two classes happening this month and next month. I won't tell you what they are just yet, but I am happy because I know it's something I can further hone and who knows, maybe even earn from.

What are your summer plans? :)

Book Bits: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

This year, I realized I've been reading a lot of Young Adult books and Why We Broke Up is one of the few I've read. This is the book I chose to do my first review on, because it's the first book on my 2013 Reading List (I am now on my 10th book) that generated a strong reaction from me.

And that reaction is that I didn't like it. I know, it's straightforward. But it's true.

Why We Broke Up is about Min Green, who writes an extremely long letter to her ex-boyfriend Ed, detailing the reasons why they broke up and revealing to the readers their love story in the process. The letter goes inside a box full of mementos collected throughout their relationship.

It's a good book. It has a good and relatable story, but what I didn't like was how it was written. Daniel Handler wrote it in the main character's stream of consciousness, and that's what made it problematic. The sentences were too long, the thoughts too crowded, the words losing their meaning. I had to skip several pages because I couldn't stand getting stuck inside Min's head. The characters also talk weird for some reason, like they were Yoda. Wrong, is what you did. Sorry, is what she said. Also, I'm not an expert on literature and writing styles, but it stressed me out whenever I saw the author use double adjectives.

Another thing that annoyed me was how Min kept referencing scenes from old movies. It was established from the get-go that she was a film buff, and not just an ordinary one, but an art film buff. You know, the kind who likes movies no one's ever heard of, let alone watched. Later on after finishing the novel, I find out it's because the movies and the stars were all made up. So, it wasn't me.

When I got to the end of the book, I learned that Daniel Handler is more popularly known as Lemony Snicket, best known for the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I haven't read those books, or any other book he's written, so I don't know if this is really his writing style.

But here are the reasons why I gave the novel a chance and actually finished it: I could relate to Min. I am a sentimental person, and found it normal how she saved all those trinkets (bottle caps from when they first met, a container of sugar they stole, a basketball game pennant). I wouldn't have gone as far as giving them back to my ex, but that's the whole point of the novel so I will let that slide. Ed was her first love, and when you were in high school, didn't you save those little trinkets too, thinking it would make a conversation piece in the future? Hey, I save them until now!

I also understood how Min felt around Ed's jock friends, and how she wanted her friends to like Ed. I even related to her relationship with her guy best friend Al, who Ed thinks is gay.

Handler also created a strong character in Ed, the jock who was good in Math. Ed the romantic and ready to defy his friends, didn't care about their opinions, and was also weird in his own way. But also, the guy you wanted to hate because of what he did to Min.

Maira Kalman's animated illustrations appear at the start or the end of every chapter.

But if I will be honest, the reason you need to buy the book is because of Maira Kalman's wonderful illustrations.