A touch of romance

Chef Gene Gonzalez's Café Ysabel in the City of San Juan has a romantic ambiance and serves great food—perfect for a dinner date today.

Wishing you all a love-filled day.

Happy Valentine!

Refuge

Hidden among the tall office and condominium buildings of Ortigas Center is the tiny Ortigas Park, which has several cafés nearby. We were there on New Year's Eve—the first time I've been there—and most of the benches were occupied, I assume by residents of the many condominiums in the area. Metro Manila needs more havens like it.

Two towers

Looking out the roof deck of Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street, which has a skylight at the lower level, towards a pair of condominium towers, one done and one still being constructed, in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City.

All fired up

Ateneo de Manila University AY 2010–2011 first semester sports championships:
• Blue Eagles (men's college basketball), 3-peat
• Blue Eaglets (high school basketball), 3-peat
• High School Swimming Team, 6-peat
• Grade School Small Basketeers, 4-peat




At the "Three for History" bonfire last night.

City of lights

I posted a similar view of Metro Manila from Timberland Sports and Nature Club in the past, albeit during the day. I've also revised my previous estimate—there's more than three cities that one can see from up there. It's amazing though how the metro looks so flat from the Sierra Madre's foothills. It was a cloudy evening but Venus still managed to shine through.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

Rooted

Last year, it was an alien on a tumor. This year, the building of the Ateneo Art Gallery is crawling with Jan Leeroy New's "Balete."




The balete or banyan tree figures prominently in Philippine mythology as the favored home of spirits, especially the malevolent and evil kind. A portion of the exhibit notes reads:

Who's afraid of the Balete? Also called the Banyan tree, the Balete's distinct aerial prop roots and capacity to grow to huge proportions have bestowed upon the tree a sacred identity. Most dare not trespass this mysterious entity. Nevertheless, Leeroy New goes ahead to recreate the awe and terror that it inspires, using bright orange flexible conduits for electric cables as probing roots that attach to and choke pristine white pillars.

All I can say is, I refuse to walk down my favorite brick road at night while the exhibit is ongoing (until October 2 or as long as the plastic tubes last, whichever comes first).

The war of the malls

When I first wrote about SM City North EDSA mall's Sky Garden, I mentioned that it was a response to the challenge of the more beautiful TriNoma mall, with its lush plants and numerous water features, which opened right across the street. The Sky Garden has some ponds too, and Starbucks opened a branch right beside one, like it did in TriNoma.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

Fifteenth

Today, the Republic of the Philippines welcomes its 15th President. Benigno Aquino III, the son of Ninoy and Cory, is more popularly known as Noynoy. Since his victory in the elections earlier this month, he is now also known as P-Noy, a play on our slang word for Filipino, Pinoy. His formal oath-taking and inaugural address will be at the Rizal Park's Quirino Grandstand in the City of Manila. The inaugural reception with other government officials and the diplomatic corps will be in Malacañang Palace, Mr. Aquino's office and home (in a smaller house in the compound) for the next six years. However, his real home is in Quezon City and, after the formal stuff, he will go to the Quezon Memorial Circle for a big street party. The memorial and fountain have been dolled up with colored lights, and I saw them for myself last night from the pedestrian overpass near my jeepney stop and tricycle station. Of course, with evening rains now quite regular again, party-goers are being asked to bring umbrellas, preferably yellow.




Whatever your faith or beliefs, please say a little prayer for Mr. Aquino and my country. Corruption is deeply embedded and widely rampant in our government, and poverty so pervasive and such an overwhelming problem, that he will need all your good wishes and everyone's help. He will have mine.

Beacon

When the sun has completely set, the Church of the Gesù is a beacon of light in the Ateneo de Manila University campus. Especially for the students who live in the dormitories beside it.

Westward Ho!

The Sky Garden of SM City North EDSA has a covered walkway which links all of the mall's buildings. I've never seen one, but it reminds me of historical American West covered wagons.

Memories

Fourteen years ago tomorrow, Exie and I got married at Mary the Queen Parish in the City of San Juan. Our lunch reception was at the restaurant Chateau 1771 in the El Pueblo Real complex in Ortigas Center. It closed last year—for good, I thought, because it relocated to the newer Greenbelt 5 mall in Makati City, a location which better suits its fine dining atmosphere. Happily, I discovered earlier this month that the company only closed the El Pueblo location temporarily. Its interior has been completely renovated and it is now named Café 1771 but it still offers some of the original dishes and its charming facade has been retained. I'm glad to know that our wedding reception memories are not just memories now.




Happy anniversary, love of my life.

Poverty gap

A cousin who has lived in Chicago since he was four years old recently came to the Philippines to visit and he told me that one of the things he noticed about Metro Manila was the great disparity between the rich and the poor here. Which reminded me of this photo I took last year and meant to use for the October 2009 CDP theme day, Contrast. I ended up not using it because I thought it was too depressing to use for theme day and also because we had just been devastated by typhoon Ketsana, known locally as Ondoy, and I wanted to post something about it. But my cousin is right. All big cities everywhere have to struggle with the problems of homelessness, but nowhere is the poverty gap more evident than in the megalopolises of third world countries, where luxurious modern skyscrapers stand side by side with sprawling slums and shanty towns. I did not see which Filipino fashion designer owns this atelier, but it is in front of Penguin Café Gallery in the City of Manila.

Billions served

McDonald's was first brought to Manila by businessman George T. Yang in 1981. It now has close to three hundred branches all over the Philippines; some are company-owned and some are franchises. The bigger branches have any or all of the fastfood giant's additional services: McCafé, PlayPlace, drive-through, or being open 24/7, including holidays! In Metro Manila and a few other cities and provinces, McDonald's also offers 24-hour delivery. What's your country's McDonald's like?

Reading lamps

When I posted a photo of the west facade of the Rizal Library in the Ateneo de Manila University with its sparse windows, someone commented that she doesn't like buildings without windows. In fact, it is only the east and west sides that have few windows so that the interiors do not get the full strength of the sun's heat. If you've ever stayed in equatorial countries during their summers, you can understand why this architectural design principle makes a lot of sense. However, the north and south sides of the library are almost nothing but windows, providing lots of natural light in the reading rooms during the day. Of course, they still have to use fluorescent lamps at night.

There will be darkness

SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City is currently the Philippines' second and the world's fourth largest shopping mall, with a floor area of 390,000 square meters (4.2 million square feet) in 42 hectares of land reclaimed from Manila Bay. Tonight, this whole area will be plunged in darkness, at least for an  hour, for Earth Hour 2010.

8:30 P.M. • SATURDAY • 27 MARCH 2010

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

No bathing

Remember the photo of TriNoma mall's facade which I posted two weeks ago? This is what the little stand of trees looks like from the curved walkways on the upper floors. There's a small fountain in the middle of it. What you can't see because of the trees is that the four sides of the fountain are cordoned off. My guess is that the mall administration was having problems with too many kids (and even adults) trying to bathe in it. TriNoma is right beside a large squatter community, after all.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

An oasis from consumerism

A small pond within a small park in the middle of the Greenhills Shopping Center in the City of San Juan. It is right next to the tiangge (bazaar) and is outdoors, hence the covered walkway between buildings. I wonder if the thousands of shoppers that pass through the park everyday notice just how lush it is.

Urban or rural, natural or man-made, take a sightseeing tour of our world's diverse scenery!

Floating fish

We saw a new restaurant in Harbour Square during our last visit, but afloat on Manila Bay rather than being a part of the complex. Does it look like it can actually sail? Even if it doesn't, if the dining area overlooks the bay, it might still be worth trying out. Mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) is a large fish found in warm seas; its flesh is firm, white and very tasty.

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

Yellow diamonds

Another photo from Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, this time of the lights under the canopy of the driveway. Just because I like the pattern that they make. It's amazing what one notices when one's a little tipsy.

We await you still

This statue of the young Jose Rizal, Philippine national hero, is in the Ateneo de Manila High School and a gift of Class 1997. The inscription at the base is a quotation from Rizal's second novel El Filibusterismo, published in 1891, and spoken by the priest Father Florentino in the concluding chapter:

Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their dreams, and their enthusiasm to the welfare of their native land? Where are the youth who will generously pour out their blood to wash away so much shame, so much crime, so much abomination? Pure and spotless must the victim be that the sacrifice may be acceptable! Where are you, youth, who will embody in yourselves the vigor of life that has left our veins, the purity of ideas that has been contaminated in our brains, the fire of enthusiasm that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you, O Youth! Come, for we await you!