Chicago – Day2

Our last night in Chicago in a nutshell: HOUSE OF BLUES, baby!

Day 1 in Chicago

Details to follow, in the meantime check out our first day in the Windy City. Sigh. Love this place

Click on pic below to view album

A new home.

Change is a good thing.

Last Sunday marked our final church service in the UA Theater in Stonestown. Starting this weekend, Bridgepoint will have a new home in the Hilton Garden Inn. I won’t be there to witness the first service as I am currently out of state for business, but if you do ever find yourself awake at 10:30am in South City on Sundays, check the church out

Anyway, here are a few snapshots of last week’s move/pack-up. Incidentally, this was officially my new Nikon’s first photo op

party in pictures

One of my dear friends, Nikki G (third from left, first picture), celebrated her 21st birthday with a dessert party at her apartment in the city. Her pad happens to be directly behind the University of San Francisco (where she studies), so we took a stroll up the prestigious institution later that night and got some shots in.

Here are a few photos: (Btw, In honor of the birthday celebrant, I posted the pic she attempted (hehe) to take of Bebs and me. See last pic; I’ll give her an A for a-ffort

Tomorrow morning I leave for Chicago for a business trip. I, alongside a couple of colleagues from Manila HQ, will be visiting five different cities in the next couple of weeks. It will be tiring, but should be fun.

Now, I have to apologize ahead of time, I may not be able to blog as often as I would normally do. But I will promise to take lots of pics during the trip and hopefully will be able to post them while I’m out of state. Speaking of which, I have one last batch of photos to post, taken last Sunday at church. I know this is such a boring entry, but I promise to make up for it when all this business hullabaloo is over.

More details soon

New baby, baby!

Truth is, the D70 was the goal. The objective was to not tap into savings and actually find the means to buy my digital slr. That way the $1300+ purchase (lenses included) was guiltless and justifiable.

Well, three months and (what seemed like) a gazillion photography and video editing projects later, I found myself having accumulated just half my budget and with a dire need for a more powerful camera than what I currently had. I couldn’t wait another three to four months for the slr as photography had already become a reliable sideline. I needed a better camera soon and I had to decide.

After bouncing off options to Bebs, we concluded that I forego my dream camera for now and just purchase my base cam first, which is a higher end Nikon digital point-and-shoot (Yeah, I’m a Nikon girl

It must’ve been a wise decision, because I found an unbelievably great deal on Ebay for a Nikon 5400 soon after, which I ended up purchasing last week.

So I picked up my new toy from San Jose last Friday, and I have never been so excited. Sure, the D70 is still in my love list (along with this, this and this) but I’m resigned to just getting it later this year. It should be cheaper by then anyhow. heheh.

Taken Saturday morning, the day after the purchase (Yes, I’m the type of person that actually reads the manual).

Anyway, I got to test the cam out over the weekend and will be posting the pics in the next few days. That should keep this blog busy while I’m gone (Will be in the East Coast for a few weeks for work).

Lights out folks! Night

Say it with pictures

Hey folks,

I’ve finally updated my online portfolio. More photos to follow, but in the meantime, do check the site out when you have time

A more decent post soon.

Good food & great music make for one awesome Saturday.

Saturday’s events couldn’t have gone any better.

Initial plan was to start early with TKB at 9:15am, go hiking at Pacifica the rest of the day, and then head to Michael Manring’s album launch in Berkeley afterwards. Nothing wrong with this plan, except that:

a) We couldn’t wake up early enough for kickboxing, and
b) Hiking at Pacifica–although an absolutely lovely idea–wasn’t such a wise plan lest we intended on showing up at the concert all sweaty, rugged and muddied.

Somehow while finalizing the day’s itinerary, ribs came into the picture, and Bebs (our event planner) recommended the following sched:

Brunch at 11am at the Bharwani home;
Sight-seeing at Jack London Square;
Early din-din at Everett&Jones for some yummy RIBS;
Then off to Berkeley for the album launch.

We made a go at the plan and it turned out to be one GREEAAATT Saturday. I took some pictures along the way, unfortunately I had but ONE BAR of juice left on my camera as the charger conked out on me. So without further ado, here are snippets of our Saturday in the sun.

This is Jack London Square on a quieter weekend. Funny that there weren’t a lot of people out on the street that day, but the change was welcome.

Raf, Bebs and moi hamming it up at Everett&Jones. Being the big carnivore that I am, I found myself researching online one day for the best tasting ribs in the Bay Area, and E&J happened to be one of the names I came across. We finally decided to check the food out and decide for ourselves if the fuss truly was worth it.

We ordered the slab of ribs, supposedly good for 3-4 people, and hoped for the best. Well, the last pic on the strip may not be much of a visual aid, but imagine it twice heaped and that’s how the platter arrived at our table. We could have had two more people at our party and we still would’ve been more than full! And boy, the ribs was OOOOOOOOH SOOO GOOD. Tender, juicy and not too drenched in barbeque sauce, unlike the others I’ve tasted.

This place is definitely worth coming back to.

The main event: Manring at the Berkeley Jazz School

Whoo boy, this man and his music is mind blowing! I don’t think anyone’s taken bass playing to such amazing heights as he has. Twas extremely good to see him again. Same down-to-earth musical genius, genuinely nice person, and apparently funny, too! His new album, Soliloquy, is craaazy brilliant stuff. I haven’t listened to all 14 songs yet (kinda need time to grasp each one), but worth mentioning are Excuse me, Mr. Manring and Selene, a beautifully moving piece.

Bebs, Raf and I queued after the show to get our CDs signed. He warmly greeted Bebs with a hug, shook Raffy’s hand, and told me he liked my pictures! I offered to send him a CD of the ones I took at his last gig, to which he gratefully thanked me for. All this time I’m looking at this man amazed: There is no air of stardom in this guy. Doesn’t he know what an accomplished musician he is?? Makes me all the more impressed.

I may not fully comprehend the complexities of his music the way a bass blayer would, but I am definitely chalking him in my list of favorites. The guy is hands down extraordinary.

A behind-the-wheel-horror-turned-bliss story.

Yeah baby!
You’re looking at an official California licensed driver!!!
YEEEEEEHAAAAAAW!!!

It’s the best feeling ever. I’ve never even driven in Manila, so you can imagine how extreeemely ecstatic I feel.

Let me just say though that it was total undeserved grace. UNdeserved. A was one day away from an expired Student’s permit and I barely had a full month’s worth of driving practice. So I worked extra hard my last two weeks and took the afternoon off on the day of my exam just to make sure I was comfortable on the road. And just when I thought I was ready for it, we headed to the DMV for the test…

The wait was agonizing. I was last in the queue and I was getting more and more anxious. After what seemed like an age, my turn finally came and my instructor (a very nice, calm, mild-mannered man) greeted me with, Now, let’s see if you’re better than the old woman I just tested. Thanks for the vote of confidence, mister.

We did the preliminary car inspection: left & right signals, check.. horn, check.. hazard, check.. hand break, check… hand signals, check… all good. He then got in the passenger’s seat and the driving nightmare began.

I was flawless. For all of ten minutes, atleast, until he asked me to make a left turn on an intersection and i failed to yield to oncoming traffic. I practically met the SUV across me head on, and the funny thing was, I didn’t even know it until I saw my instructor beside me curl up like a scared puppy and whisper STOPPP! I apologized, explained I was tremendously nervous and silently prayed that that was the last of my mistakes. The test went downhill from there.

I constantly went 25 on a 35 speed limit, made a right just when a pedestrian was about to cross, changed lanes while too close to the car behind… Oh man, it was ridiculous I just wanted to get it over with. After we parked, he enumerated a litany of my errors, lectured me on road rules, and even sketched on his pad to diagram how to yield on a left turn, among other things. After the longest five minutes of my life, he then asked,

So, do you understand everything that I’ve explained to you? Do you now know where you went wrong? Do you promise to work hard on your mistakes?

My yes was audible, but not confident.

Then the miracle. Okay. 12 mistakes… Let’s just say you passed.

Whaaaaat???

You made it through. Scribbles a few things on my papers. Bring this inside and hand it over to Window 18.

I thanked the man deeply, though still a bit confused. Did he say I actually PASSED?

So, do you wanna know if you did better than the old woman?

I replied, a bit embarrassed, Oh, I know for a fact I did terribly…

He smiled, Yes, you did much worse than her. She didn’t cut off anyone, she made all her turns…

Haha. Funny man. I thanked him again, couldn’t get the freaking keys out of the ignition, and instead pretended to read my exam paper while he got out of the car to buy me some time. What is up with me today??!?

I made it inside DMV just as it was closing and met Bebs there. By this time it had already dawned on me that I actually did pass so I was suddenly giddy and well, ECSTATIC baby! Saw the instructor again, who went out of his way to tell Bebs how badly I fared compared to the old woman. I didn’t care, the guy was in truth very nice, and I was only grateful that I had passed.

AND I DID!

Yeba!

I certainly felt we needed to memorialize my day of undeserved favor, so after a good workout at the gym, Bebs, Raf and I hung out at home and did our own version of the Dance of Joy.

Indulge me by ending with a (cheeky or cheesy. hwehwe) thank you speech:
God, you are unbelievably AWESOME! Thank you thank you thank you!

HUGE hugs to Maria, Jackie and Raf for taking time out in your scheds to teach me all that I failed to remember during the most crucial of times. hehehe. THANKS GUYS! We shall celebrate with a movie night at our pad and my all famous chicken sotanghon (When I get back from my business trip, that is). Muchas Gracias!

And last but certainly not the least, to my Bebster: Oh my god, those last two weeks were a nightmare. LOL. We should have listened to friends when they said never to have a partner teach you driving. BUT! Despite all the tension and yelling, thanks for holding my hand every step of the way, babe. You are the best-est

Now, if we can only get that Sentra working…

Worth the ogle

Aww, how cute is that???

Meet Sasha, the newest addition to the Quila family. I was introduced to this tiny beagle last week, and I was told she only has three things on her daily agenda:

snip
snack
snooze.

Oh, and crap. lol. I hear she attacks anywhere.

I can never get my hands off her though. If it weren’t for our non-pet friendly apartment, I would definitely get a dog in a heartbeat.

Sigh. I miss that part of my life. Having pets, that is.

In an effort to trust the weatherman…

Hola!

Check out our pics from last Saturday’s road trip. Bebs got his cue from the weatherman the day before when the latter announced the good news,

If there’s anything outdoors-y you’ve been wanting to do this week, do it tomorrow! We’re looking at a bright and sunny Saturday, folks… (paraphrase mine)

So we took the forecast’s word by the balls, packed our new picnic basket with crackers, grapes, and an assortment of cheeses, and headed the next day to Pacifica Beach in our tank tops and short shorts…

Only to find ourselves staring straight at a bright–yes, BUT

chilly

freezing

cold beach.

Why do San Francisco shores have to be SO COLD???

Ah well, no sense fighting it. We made sure to make the most of the trip though. After fifteen minutes of chilly Pacifica weather, we drove to Montara to check out the scenery. We spent the rest of the afternoon there, where Bebs played hero to two tiny dogs as he saved them from getting swept by some nasty waves.

We then capped off the day at the city with the rest of the gang at XYZ (W Hotel), and a midnight snack at some cheap chinese joint.

Pretty good day, if you ask me. Enjoy the pics!