Major Backlog

Ipupusta ko ang aking 13th month pay. Hindi mo kayang talunin ang aming parent backlog. Si Little One ay 4 years old na sa April. Pero hanggang ngayon hindi niya pa kilala si Jesus, si Mama Mary, si St. Joseph, kahit sinong santo o santa. Kahit si Santa Claus. Hindi pa rin siya marunong magdasal.

Kaya naman siguro lagi siyang masaya. Walang kumplikasyon, walang pantasya. Ang lahat ay kulay lang at ilaw.

Pero next year, di na yan pwede. Kailangan daw ng bata ng routines. Guguluhin ko na ang kanyang buhay. Eto na. Sorry naman.


Lahat ng pekatyurs ay galing sa Pacific Star Plaza lobby. Ang ganda!

Message for her...

Dear  ____,

Please watch... for me.  One day, one night, somewhere, sometime, we'll dance this way.

"You know I feel it in my heartbeat
Don't you know? Can't you see? When I dance I feel free
Which makes me feel like the only one
The only one that the light shines on"

P.S. I think you'll like her shoes.

~YummyliciousLady

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!