Birthday Balls and Bellies: Margarette's 23rd!!

- December 7, 2013, Saturday.

- Right after my graduate school conference, I took a jeepney to SM North EDSA to hail a cab to Margarette's house. However, in a strange course of events, taxis rarely passed by the taxi lanes, and some taxis that didn't have passengers wouldn't pass by. I still can't understand why. Margarette and Clarisse kept calling me to ask how I was, and if I had already gotten a cab to ride. Finally, they decided to pick me up instead, since my taxi situation was close to hopeless.

- After arriving at Margarette's house, we had a shabu-shabu dinner, with plenty of "ball" things I had not eaten before, like a cheese-filled fish-ball thing that bursts in the mouth after eating, and will surely burn the tongue since the cheese would be very VERY hot especially right after getting it from the hot broth. We also had come baked macaroni.

Happy birthday!! :D:D:D:D

Reading my birthday note.

- My favorite part was dessert. We had mango torte and some ice cream cake (I assume it's a Neapolitan ice cream cake.) Still, the best part was catching up with both of them.

The Eat-a-thon Double Birthday

- October 12, 2013, Saturday.

- It's been quite a while since I've hung out with a large group of people, and it's been a year since I last saw most of my companions tonight. Some weeks ago, Robina and I planned to celebrate our double-birthday again this year, with some of Robina's former classmates whom I have grown close to as well. We celebrated at Mann Hann Lucky Chinatown, and weird enough, we ate so quickly that we finished our big dinner in less than an hour. We all ate the cake Cedric gave Robina and me, and it was honestly one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever eaten in my whole life; it wasn't too sweet, and it was silky in texture. Needless to say, I ate it quickly as much as I wanted to savor every moment.

- Everyone thought that the cake was our "dessert," but Robina and I planned to have an extended bonding time and dessert at Rainbow Snow. Cedric had a lot of weird topics to talk about, but oh well, that's Cedric and we like him just the way he is. (Haha.) I hope we can do this again next year. I really miss these people a lot.

Oh Winny.

I love our cake Robs. Haha. Thanks Ced!!

Robina, your cheeks.

Hannah high-fiving with Tyrone.

Yay for photography skills.

Rainbow Snow!!

The Birthday Balinese Surprise

- September 28, 2013, Saturday.

- I couldn't miss a birthday without spending it (earlier, on the day itself, or a bit late) with these two friends. Marga, Clarisse, and have been a trio for 9 years now, and I can't believe how far we've gone and how much we've experienced together.

- I spent my 3-days-late birthday celebration with them at Italiannis Lucky Chinatown, and instead of them surprising me with anything, I was the one who surprised them. I brought out my small speaker and (jurassic-but-still-good-to-go) iPod and played some Balinese gamelan, swooshed out a fan, and started to do a bit of legong. I wore my embroidered-batik Indonesian shirt, adorned with a wayang-golek-like pendant to make it more Indonesian.

- While dancing around, I bought out a batik cloth wrapped around something, and slowly untied the batik in a  dance-y manner. The wrapped batik looked like a chicken's foot, according to Clarisse. After unwrapping the "chicken foot," Marga and Clarisse beheld their eyes on two violet scrolls, each secured by an orange ribbon. Both of them laughed as they were reminded of the show "Survivor."  The two scrolls contained the initial plans for our Bali trip next year, which I have been working on for the past 2 days.

Trying to do legong.

The "chicken foot" batik wrap.

2 violet scrolls.

- The three of us decided to go to Bali a few months ago. We had the mishap of me booking my ticket first, but not being able to book tickets for both of them until 2-3 months later; it had something to do with Cebu Pacific's promo fare, and at first I was the only one who got booked because the promo fare for that travel period only had one more slot for me, and had to wait until September when another promo for Bali came up. I had booked out hotel, and thought of stuff to do and places to go in Bali. I presented my initial plans to them and they became more excited for the trip.

There you go!!

- We spent the rest of the night eating Italian food, and had dessert at Mr. Bean, a soya bean store. I haven't consumed any Mr. Bean product since Chinese New Year earlier this year, because it caused my diarrhea back then. Well, at least it didn't give me diarrhea now. (Their stuff is actually yummy, as long as they don't give people diarrhea.)

- After going home, I was just in time to watch the Miss World 2014 pageant, which coincidentally took place in Bali, and where Miss World Philippines Megan Young was coronated with the title. As for me, Margarette, and Clarisse, we had our bit of Bali happiness too, together with the rest of the Philippines.

The Last Minute Saturday Win: Swami Vivekananda's 150th Birthday Anniversary Celebration at RCBC Plaza

- September 14, 2013, Saturday.

- This morning, I attended the Manila International Book Fair at SMX (no photos,) and passed by the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society booth. The lady tending the booth was encouraging people to go to the 150th birthday anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, one of India's reformers, and a popular religious figure who pushed for inter-faith dialogues and tolerance during the late 1800s until his death in 1902. My Hindi teacher invited me earlier this week for this same cultural event, but initially decided not to go because I wanted to have a laid back Saturday, and rest myself; the event was also held at 4-6:30, and at the quite-far-from-my-place RCBC Plaza. I didn't know what came over me, but I somehow decided to attend the event.

- I ate a quick lunch after attending the book fair - which seemed the same as last year and the year before - and rush home to change into a more appropriate attire for the Indian cultural program. I almost flew to RCBC Plaza via LRT/MRT, and arrived with some free time before the main program. I also go to have a photograph with former Philippine president Fidel V. Ramos, who almost crushed my hand while shaking it, and wanted me to do the stomach-in-chest-out posture to not make me look fat. (He's a funny man, and he's the type who jokes around but will keep a poker face while doing it.) His Excellency, Amit Dasgupta, the ambassador of the Republic of India to the Philippines, was also a VIP in the event. I saw my Hindi teacher as well, but I wasn't able to take a photo with her.

- The event started around 4:15, and started with an invocation, a song number, a short film about Swami Vivekananda, and speeches from the VIPs. Swami Bodhasananda, and Swami Medhasananda, both from India, were the ones responsible for the invocation, and were also VIPs alongside the former president and the ambassador.

Swami Vivekanand.

An unlikely photo: a swami from India, a Chinese pretending to be Indian, the former Philippine president, and a representative from the Vedanta Society

Song number.

VIPs.

Hello again Your Excellency. :D:D:D:D

- The main cultural program was shown during the second half of the evening: Natya Mandala's Arpana. The Arpana is a series of dances by the Natya Mandala dance group, and was choreographed by Mrs. Shanti Sreedhar, an award-winning dancer. The Arpana featured Bharatanatyam, one of the earliest and most popular classical dances of India that roots from one of the southernmost states, Tamil Nadu. Mrs. Sreedhar's students from her school, Natya Mandala, are mostly Indians, with some Filipinos, while her students from the UP Filipiniana Dance are mostly Filipinos; Mrs. Sreedhar is affiliated with UP Diliman.

Ganesh Vandana.

Shiva Tandava Strotam.

This number shows Shiva's manifestation as the Ardhanarishvara: half male, half female.

- It was nice to see a Bharatanatyam concert, although my first time to witness a live Bharatanatyam performance was during the Festival of India this February. The Bharatanatyam I saw this evening was "different." since more props and more performers were involved, not to mention more lighting. All the dances were properly introduced and described. The dancers were also great, although I noticed that the members of the UP Filipiniana Dance were too "soft" in executing the Bharatanatyam dance; the Bharatanatyam is labeled as a dance of fire, so some firmness and precision of force is needed. Still, I was in jaw-drop awe with all the colors, sounds, postures, mudras (hand gestures,) and expressions.

Veer Hanuman (a tribute to the monkey-god Hanuman.)

An interesting number, entitled "Messiah."

This number shows the versatility of the Bharanatyam; although it started as a Hindu dance, it could be used to express other faiths as well.

This one's a Christian dance. The one on the spotlight is supposed to be Jesus.

- After the "rangbiranga" (colorful, in all ways possible,) performance, some refreshments were provided. I would call the food "Indian fusion," and I applaud the caterers for not overdoing the fusion, and the Indian taste was still recognizable.

Shivashakti number.

Use of neem leaves.

Whoops!!

Swaranjali dance.

Finale dance: the Gambeera Tamasi.

Final thanks and salutations to the audience and Bhumi, the earth goddess.

With Mrs. Shanti Sreedhar.

- I had a brief visit to Glorietta to buy a tripod before going home. Although it was late, I had no regrets going to the Swami Vivekanand celebration. Not only because I learned more about Swami Vivekanand, and an opportunity to rub elbows with some VIPs (literally,) but more than that, I had an opportunity to witness and get in touch with the Indian culture again -- and of course, all these I did with a kurta and an Indian scarf on me, with my pointy-toed camel-leather juttis.