A novel, visually

My favorite of Migs Villanueva's paintings at the Duetto exhibit. Reflecting her talents as both a painter and a writer, the title of this painting is "Outline of a novel."

Portrait of a writer as a painter

Meet Migs Villanueva, a friend and one of the artists featured in the Duetto exhibit. She was a classmate of my husband when he was still studying for his Master's Degree in Creative Writing, and I always thought of her as a writer. In fact, she has won first prize twice for her fiction in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Philippines. It turns out that she has been a painter longer than she has been a writer. The two paintings in the photo are hers.

Duetto

Duetto is the name of the joint exhibit of artists Migs Villanueva and Anna de Leon at Galerie Stephanie in Libis. They hosted a reception last night for their friends and family. It also happened to be the birthday of Migs, a friend of my husband. Instead of a guest book, they placed a piece of canvass on an easel with Duetto written in block letters, provided a box of oil pastels and invited everyone to doodle on the canvass. They obviously had other artists among their guests—note the flamenco dancer and the dove. Someone has a sense of humor too—read what he wrote at the lower right corner.

Unusual taste

Blissful Belly, the little vegetarian restaurant (well, it's really more like a small canteen) along Xavierville Avenue in Quezon City, has some unusual juices. The reddish drink on the left is tamarind iced tea and the greenish one on the right is sugarcane juice. The tamarind tea tasted so much like the rolled-in-sugar tamarind candy we have here, it felt weird drinking it. Amazingly, the sugarcane juice wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. Both tasted very good, but I'm doubtful of the health benefits attributed to them.

Monkey bars

Some of the garden paths in Greenbelt, a sprawling mall in Makati City, are lined with these bamboo trellises. Remember those monkey bars from your childhood playground? Don't you just find them so tempting? (PHOTO BY DOGBERRY)

Crabby

Last Saturday, just before the typhoon hit Metro Manila, my girlfriends and I decided to meet for lunch because we hadn't seen each other in months. We decided to meet in Shangri-la Plaza and decide where to eat when we were all there. This is where we ended up: Clawdaddy Crab House and American Grill. We had pasta, calamari and chili crab. I have to say that it was the most enormous crab I have ever seen! My two girlfriends finished the crab, but we had to bring home the calamari and pasta in a doggie bag. And Raymund Magdaluyo, if you ever chance upon this blog, my friends and I would like to thank you for the light and refreshing lime pie you sent us. It was the perfect ending to an extremely rich meal.

Just debris

I really am very blessed. Typhoon Fengshen—Frank, here in the Philippines—left our home and neighborhood unscathed. Even in the area near my office building, the worst that happened was branches were blown off the trees. Frank stayed in the country for only a day and it left last night, but not before causing heavy flooding in many streets and towns all over the Philippines. Our Department of Education decided to call off classes today (which turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day) because many students still wouldn't have been able to travel to school. You can view a short video of Frank's aftermath from Reuters here.

Waiting for passengers

I'm lucky to live in a relatively organized neighborhood. The tricycles waiting for passengers near the closest bus terminal don't clog the street where they wait in line. In fact, they got permission from a couple of government agencies to use the space behind their walls as a terminal of sorts. Our tricycles are also color-coded depending on where they can go and where they can wait. I've already posted a couple of photos of tricycles: see a closer view of one in "Tricycle" and a passenger's view of the street from inside a tricycle in "View from the inside."

Philippine handicrafts

Welcome to one of my favorite mall shops: Kultura (culture). It sells nothing but Philippine handicrafts, from hardwood furniture to home accessories, formal clothes to beachwear, jewelry to toys. Narra, bamboo, rattan, pearls, shells, coconut, piña and batik are just some of the wonderful materials that the products are made of. In this one store, you can get items crafted from all over the Philippines.

Fun wall

Yesterday, I showed one side of the restaurant Pino. This is the opposite wall—cartoons! Drawn with black markers of different thicknesses. Fine and fun. Much like their food. And probably the young owners too.

It's fine

A tiny restaurant named Pino—Tagalog for 'fine'—opened near our house less than a year ago. I adore its interior—all the varied textures! Wood and chrome furniture, wicker and embroidery accents, and a black crystal chandelier (which is way too low for me—I keep hitting my head on it when we sit at the table in the photo) in a room painted all in white hung with small paintings in plain white frames and matting. Even the food is as multi-textured as the interior design. Imagine breaded fish fillet, but the batter is made of nori (dried seaweed). Imagine maki (rolled sushi), but instead of raw fish, it's stuffed with crunchy salmon skin. When you get to meet the owners and the chef, the experimentation and daring are not surprising. All of them are young (in their early twenties)! My husband and I both hope that the restaurant does well so they'll stay open and continue experimenting for a long time.

Dashboard toys and more

I just couldn't resist taking this shot inside the taxi cab that my husband and I rode to work yesterday morning. Shrek and five other stuffed toys hanging from the windshield and sun visor. On the dashboard was a red pillow and mini brandy glasses with what looked like colored stones. Then, of course, there's the rosary (in this case, several rosaries) hanging from the rearview mirror—a common sight in this mostly Catholic country. In between two of the a/c vents is also a tiny icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And finally, if you look at the mirror on the visor, you'll see the pattern of this guy's seat covers: a gray and tan tiger print!

A 50-year-old dream

When the Ateneo de Manila University moved from its old campus in Padre Faura, Manila to Loyola Heights, Quezon City in the 1950s, the Jesuits dreamed of having a church built on the highest point of the campus. It wasn't until fifty years later that that dream was realized. In 2001 the Church of the Gesù was built and dedicated during the Feastday of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It is named after the Il Gesù, the mother church of the Society of Jesus in Rome, Italy. The design of the Ateneo Church of the Gesù, though very modern, is also very Filipino. Its pyramidal roof is reminiscent of the roof of the nipa hut, the Philippines' traditional house, now only found in rural areas. The statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the left stood alone for many years on that highest point. In commemoration of this fact, the area where the church stands is now called the Sacred Heart Hill.

Ivied walls

These are the walls of another neighbor up the street. They have a corner house and the stone wall delineating their property is completely covered with ivy. The iron spikes on top, though they won't deter a robber intent on entering the house, will at least make the experience just a little more unpleasant. At least, that's what my neighbors hope.