The one where I said: No, I don't want this anymore!

Y posted this in Facebook:

"Is it just me or did Zoren ruin weddings for the rest of us men folk? He set the bar way too high.. It's going to take a while before the women forget about this...So to the men - if you you have any plans of proposing any time soon... I suggest you postpone it until this whole thing blows over...To the women-please have short term memories... My two cents. =)"

I declared news blackout. I will not search videos and news articles about the event.

Then there were other posts and so many likes.

Then The Nanny told us about The Wedding too. Mr. Pragmatist's intense reaction was --- how was that possible? Don't you need to be together to sign marriage license application requirements?

I got curious. Curiosity killed the cat. Yup, got that loud and clear. From six feet under.

Even if the marriage license were printed on soiled toilet paper, I wouldn't care if it came this way... The authentic marriage contract from City Hall is for the government. The proposal and wedding ceremony's for the ladies raised by Walt Disney.



Look at her. Glowing with the purest, strongest form of bliss. She's blessed and I'm happy for her. Coincidentally, someone from work also got married over the weekend - a few months after she gave birth. Lovely story. And I'm also very excited about a special wedding in 2014... a dear friend is getting married after two kids.




















The hissing sound of the pressure cooker is telling me it's time to cook sinigang. It also yelled at me... to let go, in whichever, whatever or whenever way I want.  With very tender and overcooked grief (yes beef too), let it be known to all concerned that I don't want any surprise weddings nor proposals until the day I die. I don't need the real wedding ring I've been waiting for. I don't need the real make-up engagement ring. I don't need anything at all.

And that is real bliss.

XO46 Bistro Filipino

It's not just a restaurant, it's a delightful serving of the dying Filipino dining experience.

• XO46 Bistro Filipino
• Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/XO-46-Bistro-Filipino/184146081640792
• Address: G/F Le Grand Condominium 130 Valero St., Salcedo Vill., Makaty City, Makati, PH.
• Phone Number: 5536632

I wasn't able to take a lot of photos. It means that I enjoyed myself immensely. Ok, it's actually not 100% Filipino... it's the Ilustrado dining experience (if you don't know what that means, go find your first History teacher and ask for a refund).

What I loved about the place...

1. Ambiance

This blog (walkandeat.blogspot.com)  captured it best. Native craftsmanship on display. I only got this centerpiece.

2. Bugtungan

"Bugtong" means "riddle." In the olden days, bugtungan is a colorful thread in any social (happy or sad) event fabric. Just like balagtasan (ok, Google that, I don't have time to explain). In XO, they served appetizers (puto!) with bugtong. It's a scary reminder of your Filipino classes... scary because most of us have already forgotten the answers to the simplest bugtong.

3. Waiters speak traditional Tagalog!

The waiters and waitresses are in Filipiniana garb. They don't call the guests "ma'am/sir" --- theirs is "senyorita/senyorito." Z and I imagined freaking them out by making this request: "magaling, handa na ang hapunan, tawagin mo na ang senyorito mo at kakain na tayo!"

When we asked for the waiter's help in taking group photos, he said this before the click: "isa, dalawa, tatlo, ngiti po!"

4. Food

I'm a big fan of Filipino food. I don't want to dabble on other cuisines until I'm able to cook papaitan, kare-kare, lomi and all possible variations of pansit. 

XO carries a creative menu of Filipino delicacies. Enough said, just try them please. I specifically fell in love with the brownie-ganache-champorado fusion. Remember tsokolate eh and tsokolate ah of Dona Victorina (Noli Me Tangere)? They playfully call this bite-size delights "Champorado Eh." Cashew nuts and cacao powder on top made me feel something I haven't overwhelmingly felt in years: I'm proud to be Filipino!

5. Baybayin on demand

Baybayin, before gay speak started using it as a derogatory term for bisexuals (don't judge me, I just got that from the gay community), is a pre-historic writing system. In XO, you can request for words, phrases, etc. to be written in "baybayin." On the night we went to XO, we were with a guest from the US and our managers had his name "written" in baybayin. If I were dating, I would be thrilled to have the exclusive dating  (or marriage) proposal presented to me in baybayin. Teehee...Too late for that now.

Price notes? I didn't pay. But according to the managers who did, for the ambiance, experience and location, it's fairly reasonable. I don't know if this is updated - menu is here.

Price notes for me? Even if this were expensive, I'd save up for it... Because...

Fact. Any intimate encounter with the Filipino culture, sad to say, is becoming more and more expensive because it's close to extinction. I sincerely wish that restaurants like XO Bistro will still be around when our little girl is old enough to ask questions and remember details. I doubt that she'll be able to answer the riddles though. Schools don't pay too much attention to bugtungan these days. :(

Last stop... our special guest conquered Balut... coolest (Filipino Bullying Mafia) victim. We miss him!

Remember these?

For the young(er) ones... did you ever wonder why this is the "save" icon?

It's because of these.... a trip down memory lane for the young-at-heart.

Before the thumb drives of the world were born, we used floppy disks for our thesis, resume (for the first job hunting experience), love letters, songs (we had to rely on splitters to make them fit!), work! I used them until early 2007... and figured it was time to let go when it became next-to-impossible to find an external floppy drive that connects to the more.. ehem... modern PCs!

Photos were taken last October 2011, a year after we finally unpacked our moving-in boxes. The hubby is a neat-freak-pack rat!

My love affair with purple started a looong time ago...

Can't wait...

I spent the last two hours comparing package tours for an upcoming trip... and now I can't get my mind off this...

It may be the last bongga vacation we can ever afford for the next eight years, because we will be so poor paying for this...

But it's all good, because in 2014, our January trips will have a constant plus one --- until she decides she's too cool to tag along. Why you little biatch...

Ok, too early for empty nest syndrome. Got carried away.

Galera 2012: First Real Sunbathing

Big deal for me. This is a milestone. Please don't judge.

If I were in the US, I'd be legally blind. I've been wearing eyeglasses since I was 10 years old and so the idea of wearing "shades" never really appealed to me. Plus, it costs so much to have "shades with grade" so why bother? On our last trip to Galera, however, everyone had shades so I got a little curious... and envious. Therefore, I got me one... It was a rip-off at PhP80 (K got hers for only PhP50) but it was totally worth it!

Gorgeous Mommy Coincidence
(same design, purchased on different dates and location) 

Gagamgirl was on my side on my first official sunbathing day. She introduced me to the concept of authentic chill. Wear shades, lie on your back, look up, smoke! When you start feeling burned, dip in the water, then go back to real chill (sounds like rinse repeat). Also works when you lie on your tummy... and according to Gagamgirl, this works really well with a box of Mojos on your tummy too. Haha!

So this post, ultimately, is to celebrate my first real sunbathing experience with shades... and to say thank you to Gagamgirl (for her guidance and encouragement) and to the ladies who shared the lechon spot with me.

Looking forward to more firsts, at 31. :)