and then there's new life...

after 2 weeks away, i was worried that bambi will die without anyone watering her. good thing my mom passed by once a week to give her some water.

when i came back, i was so happy that there were actually 2 new leaves blossoming!!

taken on 31 March 2012

how cool is that? just when i was about to lose all hope and thinking that i'll buy a new plant :)

zaffran

So here i am on my 11th trip to mumbai. Im staying this time at westin hotel since i'll be moving around the different offices for the next two weeks.

So far i'm loving the hotel. My room is huge, even bigger than my condo. Even the bathroom is spacious with a sliding door that goes straight to my bed. Got a nice big lcd tv but not enough channels but im stuck with watching bbc, cnn, hbo or lotus.

They also have a complimentary chocolate set which i will bring homr to give to my nephews. The aircon is fine but at night i guess when they think everyone is sleeping, they centrally turn it off, which is annoying because for some reason i always wake up around 2.30am feeling hot and stuffy and no matter how much i turn up the ac, temperature does not change until 7am.. so i have to remove the covers or it gets too warm. The breakfast is nothing fancy but i love it because the international food does not taste indian like in other indian hotels ive stayed.

Yesterday was an indian holiday so me and my friend U decided to go on a shopping trip to the new infiniti mall in malad. It opened last year and i must say its bigger than the other malls ive been to in the city with 3 floors of shops, 2 floors of restos, cafes, food court, cinemas and indoor playground/ theme park. We first stopped for lunch at zaffran. Since my friend is vegetarian and indian food portions are normally huge we decided to share the food. Our appetizer is a kind of canapes made of naanlet topped with chili and tomatoes which was delish. For main course we decided on a veggie curry that was so good i couldnt stop eating though i was stuffed. We paired it with laccha paratha and aloo paratha and some pomegranate raita. Great stuff!


An hour and a half later we started hitting the shops. I ended up buying 3 pairs of shoes and a blouse from cottonworld. My friend bought 4 pairs of shoes and 1 blouse.
My office mate asked me to buy her some bollywood dvds and i got her two of the bestsellers in the bookstore.. im still looking for 3 idiots which was highly recommended by everyone but the store only had it in vcd with no english subs.

Today is saturday. Im still not sure what i will be doing today and tomorrow but most likely ill head out to oberoi mall which is walking distance from the hotel.

Update:
During my last week in the hotel, i also ordered some more indian food. the first is called Subz Miloni, which is a selection of seasonal vegetables (young corn), chickpeas, and potatoes in a fenugreek-flavored garlicky spinach gravey. At first sight it looks gross but it was just vegetables covered in spinach. (i mean, dinuguan looks more disgusting since it's using blood hehe). the subz miloni was fine but i was expecting it to be spicy but it's not so i ended up putting lots of chili sauce on the gravy.

another indian food i tried is this lamb curry called Gorsht Handi Korma. it's also good but again i expected something hot and spicy in a curry so I was a bit disappointed.

living and dying

the lower half is such a mess! i have been diligent in giving her water everyday and yet i couldn't help her leaves turning yellow and eventually falling :(

taken 2 Mar 2012

taken 13 Mar 2012

argh!!! you can clearly see the difference in the abundance of leaves from 2 weeks ago to now!! will the leaves ever grow back??

on the other hand, her upper self seems to be thriving fine as you can see new leaves shooting out!

taken 2 Mar 2012

taken 13 Mar 2012

the new leaves are growing stronger and aiming high!

feb 2012 book list

5. pure red by danielle joseph

I, Cassia Bernard, do solemnly swear to find pure red—my passion—this summer. Dad's passion is art. When he's painting, no one can reach him, not even me. My mom's passion was the ocean. She said the ocean allows you to see whatever you want to see. That was one of the last things she ever said to me...
Sometimes what your heart desires isn't what it needs. Over the course of a hot Miami summer, sixteen-year-old Cassia discovers that sometimes it takes bullies and basketball, a best friend, and a gorgeous guy to help you understand what you actually need—and to help you see that, maybe, everything isn't so black and white.
3.5 stars - this was an eas read. liked the meanings of the colors. liked how the book shows that you can have several passions. felt the romance with graham was a bit rushed and underdeveloped - felt like he was more interested in art and talking to her dad then her then they had one date and they are together? also liked the story about the dad and them resolving their issues.


6. baby it's cold outside by addison fox

After a frantic call, Sloan McKinley travels to the heart of the Alaskan wilderness to be there for her best friend, who's just inherited property in the small town of Indigo. The last thing she expects is to be lured by the town's matriarchs into their annual contest to get their grandsons married off.
But Sloan can't deny the appeal of the rugged local men-Walker Montgomery in particular. Soon she finds herself falling in love with the wild outdoors...and with one of Indigo's most beloved residents. There's just one question that remains: is the town's most confirmed bachelor ready to get caught?
4 stars - love the story between the different characters though it kinda hindered with the storytelling trying to introduce each pair while focusing on walker and sloan, but enough to be invested and eagerly anticipating the sequels. there's nothing new with the story... boy and girl meet in a small town, both afraid to love and both falling anyways. i guess it's how the autho wrote the story that kept it interesting and enjoyable to read. 


7. black ties and lullabyes by jane graves

Bernadette Hogan doesn't make mistakes. Not when it comes to caring for her mother, and not at her job protecting Texas's most eligible--and infuriating--bachelor. Maybe that's why she's overcome with guilt after one tiny indiscretion: a passionate fling with her boss that's left her confused, intrigued...and pregnant.
To self-made millionaire Jeremy Bridges, women are like fine wine: if held for too long, they sour. But one wild night with Bernadette changed all that. She makes him laugh, she makes him think, and soon she's going to make him a father. For the first time, Jeremy wants to be a one-woman man. So how can he convince the fiercely independent Bernadette he's ready to change from partying playboy to dependable dad--and become the loving husband she deserves?
4.5 stars - amazing how many books i can read when internet is down and im sitting on the cool sandy beach without a care in the world. i started reading this book in the morning and didn't stop until i had to pack up and check out. love rich, handsome arrogant guys who fall mightily for the simple yet strong independent woman. though sometimes you tend to think if this really happens inreality or just in fiction. i guess this is what most girls want.. to feel like they caught the best man who thinks they are also the best woman. she may not be the prettiest, sexiest, smartest but that one man she is everything. the premise is very standard chicklit but this story still tugged my heart.

8. catching jordan by miranda kinneally

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though- she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university.
But everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Greeen moves to her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot. And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her head in the game while her heart's on the line?
4 stars - i like books of girls falling in love with her best guy friend... as well as awkward girls getting the hottest guy in school. so this book for me could have gone either ways. i like the first part when jordan started liking ty. but then henry suddenly dropped the bomb that he loves her and suddenly she likes him back? the transition was too fast and the author never made the reader feel that they were more than best friends. also, why would jor have sex with ty even before they become a couple? call me prude but that's just icky. so now the book made me shift my attention to henry-jor and then henry stops speaking to jor! i was as confused with the book as jor!! it just didn't made sense to me and the no-speaking just dragged the story. on the other hand, i liked the development between the dad and jor and about football. i considered giving this book 3.5 stars but the feel-good ending and how the author didnt make ty a bad guy made me finally rate this a 4 stars.


9. getting over garret delaney by abby mcdonald
Seventeen-year-old Sadie is in love: epic, heartfelt, and utterly onesided. The object of her obsession - ahem, affection - is her best friend, Garrett Delaney, who has been oblivious to Sadie's
feelings ever since he sauntered into her life and wowed her with his passion for Proust (not to mention his deep-blue eyes). For two long, painful years, Sadie has been Garrett's constant companion, sharing his taste in everything from tragic Russian literature to art films to '80s indie rock
- all to no avail. But when Garrett leaves for a summer literary retreat, Sadie is sure that the absence will make his heart grow fonder - until he calls to say he's fallen in love. With some other girl! A
heartbroken Sadie realizes that she's finally had enough. It's time for total Garrett detox! Aided by a barista job, an eclectic crew of new friends (including the hunky chef, Josh), and a customized selfhelp
guide, Sadie embarks on a summer of personal reinvention full of laughter, mortifying meltdowns, and a double shot of love.
4 stars - i had pre-conceived expectations on how this book would go.. girl is in love with her best friend, bf goes away for the summer, girls meets boy at a summer job and fall in love, bf comes back but she eventually chooses new boy.. well.. it is mostly that but i was surprised that this isn't just about romance but more on self-discovery. all through out the book the story tackled on how girl and bf was in their own little world together. while that doesn't necessarily sound bad, it does tend to limit your self-growth when you close off all other relationships with other people and then you come off as obsessive... or when you try to follow or ship the other person so much you end up losing your identity. this book showed us a different side of being in love with a person.. the unhealthy kind and i loved how new and old friends helpe her have a new perspective in life. now while i expect that she ends up with josh, what i didn't expect was how garrett ended up being shown as a jerk who seems in love with himself more than being supposedly best friends with a girl. it made me ask myself if he really liked her or not. i think what the story lacked was a heart to heart talk between the two because it did seem like girl and her friends were analyzing garret's actions without the girl even talking seriously to him and how hurt she was. i thought as best friends they can have that talk and forgive each other but the story went on the total "let-go-and-move-on" scenario. on the other hand, there was little interaction between josh and girl and even less hints that josh liked her but i think the whole point of the whole story is for her to move on and realize there are other fishes in the sea.

10. bridesmaid lotto by rachel astor
Josie’s quite content to be single, much to her mother’s disappointment. So when a bizarre contest is announced where a socialite is holding a lottery to pick her bridesmaids (and rake in a little extra cash), she can’t roll her eyes fast enough, even if it does mean meeting Jake Hall, her one and only movie star crush. Obviously, Josie doesn’t enter the bridesmaid lottery, so you can imagine her surprise when her picture pops up among the winners, thanks to Mom. With a little prodding -- okay bribing -- Josie agrees to participate.
The wedding turns into the event of the year, and Josie finds herself in the middle of a paparazzi feeding frenzy, which gets even crazier after Jake Hall takes a special interest in her.
Can Josie handle the pressure in the spotlight? Is it possible she might really have a chance with Jake Hall?
3.5 stars - to enjoy this novel, one has to suspend disbelief and pretend the fantasy is possible and just go with the flow. i mean, who makes a lotto out of her own wedding? and who would want to attend a wedding where you dont know most people and even be a bridesmaid to a stranger? josie doesn' really exude a good heroine for me. people keep saying she is gorgeous but she has low self-esteem. not sure if the author wants to tell us that regular average girls can also date hot movie stars. next is jake hall. it would have been nice if the author gave his pov every now and then coz we can't tell what's on his mind. sometimes josie thinks he is ignoring her then a few beats later he approaches her and he seems interested. but then he never calls just emails or talks to her when they see each other. on the other hand, i was expecting jake to be the cynic playboy so i was surprised that he was the perfect nice guy. at first, i though putting matty as the gay best friend was so cliche and i thought it should have been calla who is close to josie so was surprised that matty was a great friend and calla was the twist in the story, though i felt bad that she had to be the bad person. emma van horn was pretty useless.. dont know why she was in the story other than to setup the whole premise. she didn't even bother befriending the bridesmaids and is just so fake. i like jennifer and hoped that she had her own story rahter than setting a trilogy of josie's disaster diary which i just skipped. oh, lastly the mom. i just want to wring her neck! first she pushes josie to join the lotto and is embarrassed by her? it's all her fault and josie wuldn't have agreed if she didn't pay for her vacation and she backs off at the last minute? i was planning to give this book 4 stars but after mentioning all the above i think im bringing the rating down to 3.5 stars.

teach me korean

another part of my self-discovery adventure is something i've been wanting to do since college but never had the time to do: learn korean.

i started my love for kpop, korean dramas and movies back in 2001 when i used to catch the then arirang channel. i just loved it. i remember the first korean acts that i liked were SES, FinKL, g.o.d, S#arp. i remember watching my sassy girl for the very first time that year and watching dramas like All about eve, beautiful days, autumn story, hotelier..

i even bought a korean phrase book and tried to learn the alphabet but i could never muster the language mostly since i was lazy to study on my own. i relied heavily on english subtitles and while i've picked up a few words from all the years of watching and listening to korean, i never learn the language.

and so the deal-addict in me found a wonderful deal -- 30 hours basic korean for P3,000!!! without hesitation, i just bought the deal. i called up Languages Internationale and immediately booked a class every Saturday.

on my first day of class, i met teacher S and my 6 classmates, E, H, M, E, M. when we were introducing each other i felt so shallow because everyone seemed to enroll the class for work purposes while i honestly told them im here because of kpop. later on, i found out that everyone in the class is crazy kpop/kdrama fans too.. the only difference is that i've been a kpop fan for more than 11 years (as far back as the 2nd gen kpop idols) while the rest were mostly suju fans (poor them, they never got the chance to enjoy old school kpop).

the first few classes were a struggle for everyone. one, "nagkakahiyaan pa lahat", second, the teacher sounded strict.. likes handing out shots as penalty for making a mistake and dreading the midterms because we have an exam the lowest grade has to pay for our korean dinner. but it was a fun struggle because we all learned the basics.. from counting to telling time to introducing ourselves to constructing sentence. there was even one session where we watched a korean film called "the bold family" which was fun to watch.

midterms came and i was so happy that i passed! i made stupid mistakes on the exam but that was okay, i learned from it. and so dinner time and to our surprise, the teacher was just kidding. everyone had to shell out only P500 since the teacher paid the lion's share, unfortunately, i think E and I had a bit of soju to drink and for some reason, we know we already gave P500 to the waiter but they insisted we hadn't so we ended up paying again. oh well, we had a good time.. great korean food.. first time to drink soju and loved it.. and good company with new friends.

after the midterms, classes resumed and the atmosphere in class was more relaxed. this time we started learning how to write and read the characters. i admit, until now i still mix up the combined characters but im sure i'll get the hang of it next time. we also started thinking about our final exams. we decided on a karaoke challenge! each one chose a korean song and we are supposed to submit the korean lyrics with our own english translation ( i used google) and practice one song to see at Platinum. i was lazy to practice so i ended up practicing hard the night before and on the day itself.

finals came, we went to Platinum and each one sang his piece. grading will be 50% teacher's rating + 50% karaoke machine score. on my first try (practice), i got a 95% karaoke rating. on my actual exam, i got 85% teacher's score and 93% karaoke score so for the final grade of 89%!!! (yay!) teacher said that even when he went out to get a drink, he could still understand my korean!!

all six of one signed up for the intermediate korean class.. same time.. same class... it officially starts this saturday and this time we will be using the actual korean text book used by grade 1 students in korea. so excited!!!

ps... i forgot to mention.. we plan to go to korea for a "field trip" this sept!!! :)

cocktail mixing class

i dont drink. well, one reason is that i'm not a bar or pub-goer so there's very few times that i get the chance to go out and drink. second reason is that since i seldom drink, i have a tendency to get red and itchy when i drink anything with alcohol content, especially if i haven't had food to eat. my "allergy" tends to show up more often when i drink wine (esp white wine) and vodka. i feel envious whenever we go out with my foreigner colleagues who all love to drink and feel pathetic that i can't. so when i saw a deal from cashcash pinoy offering cocktail mixing class at a bargain, i immediately bought the deal. first reason is i want to learn what makes up the different cocktails and taste them so that next time i go to a bar i know which drink to choose (i normally go for mojito, pina colada or margarita). second reason is i want to learn how to make a drink. third reason is i want to do or learn something different and fourth reason is to meet new people.

i was the first to arrive at 8.15 am on a bright saturday morning. i took the chance to take a pic while there's no one around. just seeing all the drinks and different glasses got me anticipating for the class ahead!

finally everyone started arriving.. there was a huge hyper group of 7, then 2 girls and 3 girls. i was alone because my friend A booked the later class. nevertheless, the group was pretty awesome and friendly. funny how when you say drink we normally think of guys but in this class, there were only 2 guys and 1 didn't even drink!

first the trainer (who was really good!) talked about the different equipment needed (eg. hawthorne strainer, mixer, jigger), the different kinds of glasses, the components of the bar, the components of a drink (special agent, modifier, spirits), the types of drinks (aperitif, dinner, long drinks) and kinds of mixing (stir, shake, build, blend, muddling).

by 10 am, everyone was raring to start the mixing session! first up was my fave, mojito. the way it went was the trainer will make the first one and then someone from the class will go in front and do the same drink. the drinks will then be distributed around so that everyone will have the chance to taste the drink. and so it goes... green apple daiquiri, watermelon margarita (i was the one who prepared this and they called it the Marjorita), whiskey sour, screwdriver, long island iced tea, tequila sunrise, cosmopolitan... by this time, everyone had their share of drinks and were starting to get rowdy. i was personally feeling a little woozy but enjoying every single drink! i love the drinks because they were well mixed.. i didn't really taste the spirit much but knew it was there. an hour and a half later, the trainer was making the B52 (is it the same as blow job).. and some were egging each other to drink it the way it should be (without using the hands). the trainer also started accepting requests so he made his personal brain hemorrhage.

by 12 noon, the class was mellowing down (maybe from all the drinks we had) and the trainer made his personally concocted mocktails like virgin blush, green pine..and a holiday dessert drink using cheesecake syrup and was super delish!!

PBCA then each handed us a certificate of completion and we took a class picture.

overall, it was a very fun saturday class!! i really hope i can put my new knowledge to good use and whip some cool drinks for myself or for my friends!