Tishie's Travels: Hullo from NYC!

I'm in one of my absolute favorite places in the world! Aside from being full of energy and loads of stuff to do and cool, cool air that's absolutely absent from Manila these days, New York is also home to lots of people I love. That's probably the main reason I lurve visiting and why it holds a special place in my heart!

So much going on so will blog in more detail next time. I haven't been going out much because of that chilly wind (no complaints! Better this than scorching heat, but it sure feels a lot like late fall instead of spring!) and, well, things aren't quite as fun without my husband here. But it's not like staying in is a big sacrifice. Check out my digs!

That last pic is a little dark...was so excited that I neglected to adjust the camera settings!

Is that awesome or what? It's located in the midtown-west side. I'm staying here with Carly (he's got the sofa bed), and we simulated an America's Next Top Model walking-into-the-model-house-for-the-first-time moment: "OMG! OMG!" *squeal jump jump*

It's a very spacious one-bedroom apartment. My friends from here say that even New Yorkers don't live like this! I've got a view of our kick-ass office building (a couple of blocks away) and even of Central Park. And sometimes, the unit is surrounded by low-lying clouds! (Or fog? A lady at the office said they were clouds so I'll take her word for it!) There's a nice bathroom, a kitchen with a two-door ref, two TVs, a balcony, free Internet connection, and enough space to do cartwheels.

Those cartwheels will have to wait though. Off to bed. Although I'm not quite sure how soon I'll be able to fall asleep, what with the jetlag and the rush from just seeing Wicked! Woohoo!

Pack (that) Shiat

Today was unbelievably crazy. I had my hands full trying to get all the work done before going home and packing the remaining stuff for my trip. My flight was scheduled for 12:35 pm of Saturday. Then, after coming from a two-hour training session, I receive an email at 4:00 pm telling me that my flight was moved to--wait for it--midnight! Of Friday-Saturday! Holy hassle of hassles, Batman!

I was incredibly upset. OK, so "upset" doesn't accurately describe it. I threw a massive bitch fit. You can't frickin' confirm that my flight is one time, then tell me that, oops, I have to leave 12 hours earlier! It's all the travel agency's fault! And they weren't even apologetic! Dude, if this had happened elsewhere, where service was actually important, I would've gotten a free trip out of it! Instead, all my epic tantrum got me was a 6:00 am flight. Still not the noon flight I was hoping for, but waaay better than midnight!

So that took a lot out of me. But I've since grown accustomed to the fact that I'm leaving six hours earlier than planned. And because that means less time with my husband, I gotta log off now! Check back with y'all from New York!

Manila Ink

I used to watch Miami Ink religiously on Discovery Travel and Living, and I even thought about what tat I would ask Chris Garver to put on me. (Ami and Nunez are kinda cute, sure, but I really liked Garver's body--bodies?--of work.) It's been a while since I stopped watching the show, but I kinda got to see a live version of it...

The new tat's on his inner arm (ouch!). Shiny stuff is petroleum jelly.

Yup, Hamil got another tat, this time by THE Joe Saliendra. And he had it done at a local Miami Ink-esque shop, the newly opened Republic Tattoo Lounge.

Joe with my husband, who's very happy with his new tat!

The brand-spankin' new tattoo shop was opened by a friend of ours and his buddies, and they've got four awesome tattoo artists in their roster: Joe, Butch Bautista, Ding Fernandez, and Butch Rosca. It's the biggest shop in the country, and I hear all the equipment's exactly like the stuff they've got in Miami! Some pics of the place, from their website:

Rarin' to get inked by some of the best artists in the country? Head on over to Republic Tattoo, 2/F Promenade Building, #198 Wilson corner P.Guevrra St., San Juan City, Philippines. You can even have a drink to dull the pain while they dutdut away!

Crazy Busy

Things have been a little hectic lately, to say the least. A rundown of what's been keeping me out of the blogging world this past week:

1. Vitor. I bought a fern for a shoot and decided to keep it. I named it Vitor and have gotten quite attached. My co-workers actually say hello to him when they see him (yes, I say "him" now).

As I was shopping for a fern, I saw a group of imported ferns that were all lush and rich green and glorious. And then I saw Vitor. He was kind of anemic, with pale green (some brown) leaves, the only local fern hanging forlornly in another part of the plant place. I felt so bad for him and figured he was the perfect size for the shoot, so I bought him. Hamil and I don't have kids just yet (wow, that would totally rock our world, in a good way!), and we really can't have a dog (we're hardly home), so for now we have a pet fern!

The name? For a time, I wanted to name our son Vito. I must have been in my Puzo phase. Hamil, however, preferred Vitor, after this guy. And since there is no way I am naming our kid Vitor, I gave the name to our plant. I'm tempted to get another fern and call him Georges. I just don't know if it'd be wise to get another plant though. I barely have enough time to water Vitor! (Poor kid.)

P.S. It's awesome having a husband who puts up with my silliness!

2. That new job. Gracious. It's a big adventure and I'm so happy to be on board and all, but man, it's totally disrupting my sleep pattern! I used to be able to leave the office and turn it off--you know, stop thinking about work stuff. But now, it's on my mind 24/7! After coming down with a cold and a cough (from stress) and getting barely any zzzs (from thinking and planning), Hamil told me, "You have to figure out how to compartmentalize." Sigh. I'm normally rather good at it. But right now, while I'm just plunging into this thing, it's totally occupying my thoughts.

3. My best friend's wedding. I have three best friends, one each from grade school, high school, and college. My college best friend (whom I've known since grade school) is Madhuri. And she's getting married next month!

It's an Indian wedding, which means it's not just one ceremony. For one of the events, there's a big production number. I'm in charge of choreographing one of the dances, so I've been busy coming up with steps and teaching them to a fairly large group during my rare spare time. I've also been helping out with the whole bachelorette party planning. Unfortunately, I'll be missing the party because of...

4. That trip to NY. I'm finally leaving this weekend! And I am constantly checking the temperature to figure out what to pack. How I wish I were traveling in late spring so that I wouldn't have to worry about coats and all. But at least I'm not traveling in winter!

5. Summer league. It officially started last weekend. We won one game (I scored back-to-back points, yay! But my handling sucked. Damn you, wind!), lost one game. And I foresee my freckles making a comeback. That sun is relentless!

I'm kind of out of breath just typing everything! But I'm not complaining. I'd rather be busy than bored!

A Timely Surprise

It was date night tonight (a weekly thing--more on that in a future post), and Hamil and I had dinner at Poco Deli. Funny how the deli's shelf had this book...

Because that's exactly what my husband did! He presented me with a little gift...

Gee, what could it be?

A sporty watch in go-with-anything white that I've been wanting for ages!

I first saw a similar watch on a friend, who happened to be endorsing it.

Photo from Meli. If you look near my shoulder, you'll see a hint of the watch on D's wrist. Sorry, it's the only pic I could find with him wearing it!

And then, Hamil and I saw The Blind Side, and my eyes zoomed in on Sandra Bullock's watch!

Image from here. There's a scene where she puts her watch on after Michael spent the night for the first time. That's when I first noticed the watch!

After that, Hamil casually asked me if I preferred silver or gold numbers on it. And then tonight, ta-dah!

Aside from the watch, I'm also wearing Hamil's small-ish undershirt in this pic. I have a thing for guys' V-neck undershirts. Maybe I got it from my dad, who normally wears it as pambahay!

I'm planning to buy an additional strap (still rubber but shaped like links), but as is, I lurve lurve lurve it. It's perfect for my trip. I'm really going to need a watch to help me keep track of the time as I navigate my packed sched!

Hamil says it's his congratulatory gift.* "You deserve it!" he told me. But what did I ever do to deserve such a wonderful husband? Watch or no watch, I lurve lurve lurve him so!

*If you found this blog through Frances's, you probably know why. I haven't really made a formal announcement or anything...

Recipe: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Dory with Caramelized Onion-Asparagus Salad

One of the things I cooked over the long weekend. It seemed to get a lot of "Likes" when I posted it on Facebook, and a friend even asked for the recipe!

I was looking for something to do with some extra dory that I had, and based this dish on a recipe by Rachael Ray, Crispy Prosciutto-wrapped Sole.

Crispy Bacon-wrapped Dory with Caramelized Onion-Asparagus Salad

Ingredients
Olive oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
Half an onion, chopped
Asparagus spears
1 tomato, chopped
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Fresh thyme (I used the dried version though)
Pepper

2 to 4 strips of bacon
1/4 kilo cream dory fillets
Salt and pepper

Salad
1. Saute onions in olive oil until brown. Sprinkle with pepper. Remove from heat.
2. In a saucepan, boil about 1 inch of water. Place asparagus, sprinkle with salt. Cook until tender. Remove from heat, drain.
3. Mix onions with mustard and thyme.
4. Mix with asparagus. Set aside.

Dory
1. Lay bacon on a flat surface.
2. Pat dry dory before laying on the bacon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Wrap dory with bacon.
4. In a pan, heat olive oil until it ripples. Drop bacon-wrapped dory and fry about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Be careful not to overcook.
5. Transfer to plate and serve with salad and chopped tomatoes on the side.

Makes 2 servings.

The Doctor Is Out

This three-day weekend, I reeeally wanted to head on over to Cebu for Ultimo Abril, or to Bagasbas for the Summer Surf Festival. But given all the stuff I had to gather (plus my expenses!) for the upcoming New York trip and the packed week ahead of me, it just didn't make sense. I needed as much time and money as I could get to prepare for the trip, and to rest up before a grueling week ahead. (Neither of those local trips promised much sleep!) Instead, I spent the weekend cooking and baking, shopping for trip-related stuff, choreographing and teaching a dance, going to disc training, and participating in an ambush birthday party/despedida for our teammate, Doc Jerome.

That's the birthday boy, second from left.

Doc, the olde--er, wisest member of the Ultimate Warriors, is leaving the country in a few days. We expected to see him at training, and when he didn't show up, we figured that we didn't want to miss our chance to wish him a happy birthday and a safe trip. So we bought chicken and liempo from Andok's then headed over to his house! Thankfully, he was home! Haha.

After chowing down (we were all famished after training!), we settled into Doc's living room for a screening of...

...the original Clash of the Titans! The film was released in 1981, so you could imagine the effects were rather crude, at least compared to the 2010 version's. (I dare say the older one was better though.) But we joked that the effects of Titans 1981 are similar to those of Pinoy movies of today! "Okay Ka, Fairy Ko," as teammate/scoring machine Kring described it!

Afterwards, we played a bit of poker--I didn't win but I did clean out Enteng! Ha! No senti speeches for Doc...I think he was trying to avoid anything emotional so the whole evening was just light and fun, like a typical Warriors get-together. But really, Doc is worth getting emotional over. So I'm doin' it here!

The team, sadly, is losing one of its most rambunctious players. Doc brings a whole lot of fun wherever he goes because of his quick wit and loud hirits. The best thing about him? He doesn't BS anyone. And he can certainly back up his mouth--whatever he says behind someone's back, he can just as easily say to his or her face. That kind of honesty sometimes makes me anxious, but in some weird way, it's pretty refreshing. Between people like him and people who whisper rumors behind your back while being pretend-nice to your face, I would definitely take Doc! Er, just make sure you don't tell him who you have the hots for. He might just march right up to the object of your affections and tell that person, as another teammate discovered about a year and a half ago!

Doc, you will be missed--your medical advice (both solicited and unsolicited! Haha), your in-depth analysis of anything from disc to Everything Else, your boisterous laughter, your funny antics, your honesty. The Warriors will always, always have a place for you. And Mundz will always be ready to huck that disc to the endzone for ya. ALL THE WAY!