Cake topper

"Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?"

~George Gobel (1919–1991), American comedian

Cakes decorated with French macarons—very original, I thought. Then I noticed the shoe cake toppers and realized I wasn't looking at the display of a bakeshop at all. It's a shoe store called the French Sole by Jane Winkworth.

Book art

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

~Cicero

The mural inside Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street is painted on a stack of books two stories high.

See murals from around the world in Monday Mural.

Pointing to the heavens

"A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit."

~Ezra Pound (1885–1972), American poet

Just as its doors surprised me for their lack of religious iconography (see previous two posts), the exterior of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat also surprised me for its lack of a cross. I wouldn't have known this was a church if it weren't for our guide, but its lovely neo-Gothic architecture would have caught my eye nevertheless. I especially love the arched rooftop patio.

Psychedelic

"Love was a feeling completely bound up with color, like thousands of rainbows superimposed one on top of the other."

~Paulo Coelho, Brazilian novelist

The interior side of the bronze doors of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat (see yesterday's post) are made of panels of stained glass which glow brightly during the day. They kind of look messy and incomplete without the bronze, though. I would love to see the doors from outside at night when the lights of the church are on.

Secular

"Most of the time, doors remain closed simply because they have not been tried to be opened!"

~Mehmet Murat ildan, Turkish novelist and playwright

The bronze doors of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat (also known as the San Beda Chapel) in San Miguel, Manila surprised me for not having any religious iconography on them. I really like them, though, and I regret not asking who the artist was.

Scrappy

"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist."

~Francis of Assisi

Natural, stained, and white and blue washed wood scraps make for a unique and fun wall at The Breakfast Table.

Grass triangles

"The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to Alaska. Now Santa Claus is missing."

~Steven Wright, American comedian

CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY: TRIANGLES • Four triangles of nipa palm leaves make up the roof of Sofitel Manila's Sunset Bar.

Tag-init, the hot season—also known as "summer" even though we don't have the other three seasons—arrived in the Philippines last week and our temperatures in Metro Manila are already hitting 32˚C/90˚F. I want to go to the beach!!!

Benedictine diary

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."

~Pablo Picasso

After eight years painting the interior of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in San Miguel, Manila (see previous post), Dom Lesmes Lopez and Brother Salvador Alberich left the back wall blank. There may have been a reason for it, but whatever it was, contemporary Benedictine monks did not like "the ugly white wall." So they commissioned the Italian painter Francesco Giannini to create a mural for it, one showing the story of the Benedictines in the Philippines. Working from his hometown of Peschiera del Garda, Giannini spent one year drawing detailed drafts and another year for the actual painting. The mural was inaugurated and blessed in June of 2012.

Benedictine masterpiece

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."

~John Ruskin (1819–1900), English art critic

The Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat was built in 1925 to serve Manila's Benedictine monks. It is more popularly known as the San Beda Chapel because of the college which the monks operate on the same grounds. The Spanish monk-artist Dom Lesmes Lopez, assisted by Brother Salvador Alberich, spent eight years from 1931 to 1939 painting the chapel's vaulted ceiling and arched walls.

Uncommon

"Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable."

~George Washington Carver (1864–1943), American scientist and botanist

More creative pieces of decoration from The Breakfast Table (see previous post): a chandelier made out of metal pails, and tin cups and mugs used as planters.

Between the pails and the cups, I half expected to see a cow for some really fresh milk.

Blue jeans

"Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola."

~Diana Vreeland (1903–1989), fashion editor and columnist

The funky denim place mats of The Breakfast Table look like they're made from recycled jeans.

A rose and a lion

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Swiss American psychiatrist

In keeping with its neo-Gothic design, the San Sebastian Church (see previous two posts) has several beautiful rose windows. I'm not sure who the saint in the middle is, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it was Mark the Evangelist, who is sometimes depicted with a lion and whose symbol is a winged lion.

Ecclesiastical heraldry

"Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions."

~Joyce Carol Oates, American author

The trompe l'oeil ceiling over the entrance of the San Sebastian Church (see yesterday's post) includes some of the heraldic symbols of Catholic bishops: the miter (headdress) in the middle, the crosier (staff), and Patriarchal cross.

The chandelier is real.

Steel Neo-Gothic

"Negligence is the rust of the soul,

that corrodes through all her best resolves."

~Owen Feltham (1602–1668)

The Basilica Minore de San Sebastian, better known simply as San Sebastian Church, is believed to be the only pre-fabricated steel church in the world. Designed by the Spanish architect Genaro Palacios, it was built in 1891 using steel sections made in Belgium after earlier churches built on the site since 1611 by the Augustinian Recollects were destroyed by earthquakes in 1859, 1863 and 1880.

Though it may be earthquake and fireproof, the all-steel San Sebastian Church—which was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1973—suffers from another problem: rust. It is humid in Metro Manila no matter what the weather is and it rains almost half of the year. The City of Manila, where the church stands, is also very near the sea. After more than a hundred years in those conditions, the steel's integrity is threatened and the church is slowly undergoing restoration.