Take home

When I'm in Singapore, home is husband, house, work and routine. But the moment I touch down in Manila, home is my friends, my mom and my mad, unbelievable city. Every trip becomes a search for and rediscovery of pieces of myself to take back with me, so that I never really leave home... and home ends up being wherever I am.

And so after a week and a half back home, this is what I have brought home with me.

Triple-certified birth and marriage certificates for our Dutch work visas. The main purpose of our trip was to get our NSO-certified documents authenticated by the DFA, then legalized by the Dutch embassy, before submitting them to the relocation agency, who will be applying for our visas in the Netherlands.

I must say the process was a lot less painful than I thought it would be! I was really impressed with the DFA; I went in my grottiest outfit, ready to sweat it out for at least half a day, but both our visits (to submit and to pick up the documents) lasted for no longer than half an hour. Progress at last!

New clothes. Thanks to the miracle that is foreign exchange, Manila always means cheap shopping for me now. (Oh the days when Landmark was the pinnacle of my consumer ambitions!) I scored a dress from Cecile Van Straten's new collection for Heather Miss Grey, a jewel-print tee from the Ramon Valera collection at Freeway, plus a funky cat-print blouse from one of the small stores at Anthropology in Rockwell. 

A whopping crush on Akihiro Sato. On Friday night in Bantayan, I flipped on the TV while getting ready to go out to dinner. Big mistake. Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Showdown was on, and it kept us glued to the boob tube for a full hour. That must have been the most telegenic final four on Survivor, ever. I'd seen Aki before but with the full grizzly beard... rawr! Kume-Keanu Reeves ito!

New books for my already tall pile of unread tomes. After cheap clothes, cheap books are always a great buy. I found Beauty and Spindle's End by Robin McKinley (highly recommended by Gutsy, the YA lit expert), The Fashion File (a book on the style of Mad Men, by its costume designer Janie Bryant), and Nina Garcia's Little Black Book of Style, each for less than I'd pay for a taxi ride in Singapore. By far, though, the best book buy of the trip was Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew.

I've never sat through an entire PBA game in my life, but I was astounded at how many memories this book dug up for me, how many names rang so many bells. Everything people have told me about this book—that you can't put it down, you'll laugh out loud, you'll love it even if you don't like basketball—is absolutely true.

A few new pounds. I managed to check off quite a few items on the list of my favorite comfort foods on this trip. Chocolate chip pancakes at Pancake House, a Regular Yum with Cheese at Jollibee, coffee pie at Cafe 1771, and pritong saging na saba at my mom's were just a few of the highlights. And of course, danggit and Cebu mangoes every day in Bantayan!

Freckles and a tan. Thanks to four days of sun and surf in Bantayan (plus two more beach trips scheduled for December), I am now well on my way to being the envy of all the Dutch with their pasty midwinter complexions!

A papier-mache and resin horse. How random is that? About two years ago, a hundred different Filipino artists took part in an auction that had them apply their own artistic touch to a taka, or a traditional papier-mache figure from Paete, Laguna. I got wind of it online and ended up buying a taka by sculptor Juan Sajid Imao, son of National Artist Abdulmari Imao and perhaps best known to us Ateneans as the maker of the crucifix at the Church of the Gesu.

I bought it sight unseen and it turned out to be huge! So the taka got stuck at my mom's for a while, and eventually it had to be repaired. I sent it back to Sajid, who was gracious enough to repair it, fortify it with a hardier structure and pack it for transit. 

We took it on the plane back to Singapore with us, and we get to bring it with us to Amsterdam with no shipping costs involved. It was also awesome to meet Sajid and his wife, who are such a warm and gracious couple.

Food for the heart and soul. Friends, family, music, and laughter... all the stuff that home is about.

I also ended up taking home a whopper of a flu that leveled me for four days after I got back. But considering how ragged I got running around and zipping back and forth to get this huge bounty of take-home goodies, maybe I should've expected it!

A case of the woollies

Literally.

The number of packed suitcases parked in Marlon's and my already cluttered bedroom speaks volumes about how our lives are going to go for the next few months. The aforementioned case of the woollies was the first to come into existence: we quite literally filled a suitcase with woolly, warm winter wear the weekend Marlon decided that he would take the job in Amsterdam. 

Buying winter wear was one of the things we were both so excited to do; we unleashed our pent-up consumer lust upon Timberland for boots, Uniqlo for unbelievably cheap but otherwise excellent quality cashmere, angora and wool tops, plus down jackets and Heattech innerwear, Zara and Winter Time for a few sweaters and a long coat for Marlon, and Muji for a few basics for me. 

One suitcase multiplied into two as we started dredging up all our existing cold-weather wear, although I am still in need of good woolen trousers, maybe a new pair of jeans, at least one more pair of closed flats and a coat. I just have to be careful that in my excitement to be fashionable (as Jonathan puts it, the "pang-mayaman" look), I buy things that will actually keep me warm.

The other suitcase is packed with clothes for an emergency trip home to Manila, which we hastily booked when we found out from the relocation agency (very, very late in the game—obviously they don't know what it's like to relocate Filipinos) about the requirements for our Dutch work permits. 

That suitcase holds grotty clothes for the day when Marlon and I have to line up to get our NSO-certified birth and marriage certificates authenticated at the Department of Foreign Affairs (I fault Singapore for many things, but the fact na pwede kang umoutfit habang naglalakad ng papeles is not one of them) and a nice dress for the day when we have to take those NSO-certified then DFA-authenticated papers to the Dutch embassy for legalization. Don't you just love being a Philippine passport holder?

Thank goodness we booked a beach getaway to Bantayan, Cebu over a month ago. That trip gives us something to do to decompress from the stress of engaging with all that bureaucracy, and while waiting for all the papers to be stamped, legalized, processed and whatever else. And that's what suitcase number four is for.

Decisions, decisions

The other evening, Marlon called in to his company's headquarters in the States for his exit interview with HR. Occasionally bits and pieces of his conversation would drift over to me, and this is one of the bits I'll always remember.

Actually, no. Compensation was not a factor in this decision... Ultimately I decided on what kind of life I wanted and let the job follow that decision, rather than decide on a job and mold my life around it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many, many reasons why marrying this man was the best decision I ever made.

Going Dutch

I am happy and tipsy and the company of old friends.

We are drinking and celebrating and one of the things we are drinking to and celebrating is a brand new start for the new year... when Marlon and I move to Amsterdam.

We broke out the bubbly and reminisced about the days when we college buddies would drink together at one in the afternoon, and it seems so much like those times now except we can afford better alcohol, there are no parents to hide from, we don't have to sober up and run to class, I'm married to one of those college buddies and the house we're drinking in is my own.

In the background stands the pieces that make up a home that Marlon and I made and loved and that we will leave in two months' time. People are coming to take away those pieces one by one (we have takers for the bookshelves, the couch and the floor lamp) and all I feel is gratitude and excitement.

 Life is good :)

Melt like butter

I just woke up from a five-day stupor called "my birthday celebration," orchestrated by my previously highly secretive, wonderfully indulgent and all-around amazing husband. There are so many things to blog about, but for now let me just squeal like a girl.

CRUSH ALERT!

This tattooed pastry chef made and personally served me two desserts, a handful of chocolate bonbons and the most precious, pearlescent chocolate egg on my birthday. Each bite was unforgettable (and I don't exaggerate), but the hotness serving them was one of the most unexpected birthday treats ever.

This is a two year-old clip, but we mustn't look a Google gift horse in the mouth... that there's video of this guy at all is something to be thankful for. Watch him in action and melt like butter. Or chocolate. Or both.

Front Burner: Andrés Lara from Chicago magazine on Vimeo.

Mmmm. Sarap!

... ng tsokolate.

Trains on the brain

It seems I've been in this train-obsessed phase as of late. It may have started with a short film that I watched in my very first screenwriting class (yes, I'm taking a class! More on which later). Strangers by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv is set on a late-night train (in what looks like Paris) and I liked it a lot (so clicky the linky!).

For reasons that are apparent if you've seen the film, it stayed with me. So for my first screenwriting assignment, one of my three short drafts was set on a train. Following the age-old advice to "write what you know," I wrote about a routine (commuting by train) and nestled it in a memory (the Paris metro). It went over quite well, and it's going to metamorphose into a short screenplay over the next two weeks.

My final assignment for photography class was due the same week. I was cramming, with just one afternoon before the class to shoot a series of photos on a single theme. It was a debilitatingly hot day, I had zero ideas for themes or subjects, and all I wanted was to stay indoors. I thought I would just hop on the train, wait for ideas to come to me and get off wherever something fired up my wilting imagination.

Then it hit me. I didn't even have to leave the train station!

Thanks to my sister, who sent me this great article on the best places to practice motion blur shots, I achieved my two-pronged aim of completing my photography assignment AND beating the heat!

A reversal: still train, moving people. By the way, all these long exposures were taken with no tripod. My teacher was amazed and said I must have an iron grip.

I stayed for a good twenty minutes without realizing it was bawal to take photos in the MRT station. Wala namang humuli sa akin. 

Finally I stepped off the platform and into the train... where I was lucky to sit right across from this adorable little girl. Who by the way was both eating and drinking in the train.

Then I transferred to the green line and off at Kallang station, because I remembered that I had been there once before and found it very striking.

Motion blur is fun! Wheee!

And THEN I realized I had always been curious about the old railway station at Tanjong Pagar. It's a train that actually takes you all the way to Malaysia. Built in the 1930s, the station stands on property that's recently been turned over to Malaysia by the Singapore government.

Diba, parang Grand Central lang? My thought bubble upon seeing the station for the first time was: Meron palang ganito sa Singapore? I was really sorry I didn't have a wider lens to capture the whole interior. There were many, more accomplished (or at least better-invested) shutterbugs there the same afternoon with bigger lenses than mine.

I was happy to have visited while it's still a fully operating train station—operations will be shifted to Woodlands, closer to the Malaysian border, starting July 2011.

A significant proportion of the crowd at the station seems to be old-timers who go to the station to kill time and grab a bite. 

In fact, I've heard more about the authentic Malay grub at the canteen from people I know than about them actually taking the trains.

The mood seemed a lot more slow and sleepy than any of the other train stations I normally pass through.

But no matter how many things change, I guess there will always be someone rushing to catch the train.

Food for thought

Back in college, Food for Thought was that little sandwich shack with two rickety benches, right beside Colayco Hall. It was one of my favorite places to go for a quick lunch or a snack, and I always ordered the same thing: a salami sandwich with a pack of Zesto.

Years later, another Food for Thought has become a favorite of mine—this time, in Singapore. This one is a nice little brunch place on Queen Street, right beside the Singapore Art Museum. It's walking distance from VHQ, where I work on some days, and from Raffles City, where I do yoga.

The location is so perfect and the food is so good that I ended up going there five times in less than two weeks! And the airy, contemporary ambience is not bad either.

I especially love the bottle installation as lighting fixture. That's a total of 540 bottles of Leggo pasta sauce! The owners and staff repacked the pasta sauce and gave it away to charitable organizations for Christmas. This restaurant professes to be all about "good food for a good cause" (as part of the proceeds go to charity) and the lighting is a striking, visually appealing reminder of that.

I took Talbot to brunch with us so I could complete my first photography assignment, which was to shoot a variety of photos from one vantage point. Brunch was the perfect opportunity to park my ass in one place and just click away!

Chai spice-crusted salmon with risotto and mango-ginger chutney. Yummers!

This super cute little girl wandered up to all the tables to say hi. Then she made a beeline for the desserts. 

Nobody beats my brunch date in the cuteness department though :)

Talbot & I

One of my goals when I resigned from my full-time job earlier this year was to free up more time to learn and try new things. So I felt a wonderful sense of achievement when I signed up for, and completed, a three-week basic photography workshop at Objectifs on Arab Street. I had Talbot, my new Canon 550D, and Marlon had a semi-DSLR Fujifilm Finepix generously bequeathed to us by my sister. 

The first class was pretty confusing for me as I attempted to absorb the basic rules of how things are related to each other, retain the knowledge that a bigger aperture number actually means a smaller aperture opening, train my fingers to push the right buttons and turn the right dials, and remember why you don't need a shutter speed of 400 to shoot a can of Coke. 

We headed out into the Kampong Glam area right after the first theory class to practice our newfound knowledge. These are some of my favorites from that first shoot. 

One of my very first photos, taken during lunch break. 

Objectifs is located near the quasi-hipster hotspot called Haji Lane, but also near the Mosque. I really like this area for the small, quaint feel and the many Muslim (both Malay and Turkish) eateries around.

Shawls for sale!

Coffee break!

One of the cafes in the are was really cozy and full of daybeds, which were in turn full of Caucasian backpackers.

Shisha, anyone?

That first afternoon was all about simply getting the right exposure relying entirely on manual settings. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but the span of a few hours, I realized how much fun you can miss out on by just going on Auto all the time! 

I really got how pictures could go beyond just a record of an experience to a form of communication and expression when our instructor would constantly ask, "Well, what did you want to achieve with this picture?" And how, by choosing not just your subject but what you want to highlight about that subject, you can actually say something; a statement about the world that is completely your own.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my trusty little Lumix, but Talbot and I... well, this could be the start of something beautiful.

An overdue update

Hello everyone! I'm still alive! I hadn't wanted to go over a month without updating, but September just trampled all over me like a herd of wild baby elephants... and suddenly I find I've missed my deadline.

So in the last month, I have...

Made significant changes to my diet. Thanks to an unfortunate incident with a mascarpone cheese pasta and this article on "hidden reasons" for weight gain, I realized that I am lactose intolerant. It felt a bit like finding out you had been betrothed to a man you didn't love, as lactose is so pervasive in the things I normally eat! Aside from cheese (which I have as much as twice daily), it's also present in milk chocolate, potato chips (goodbye Lay's Salt & Vinegar!), baked goods, sliced bread, processed meats like cold cuts and sausages, breakfast cereals and milk.

After trial by elimination, I noticed a big difference in my water retention, digestion and in other, more minor symptoms that I'd been experiencing but never thought were related to diet, like asthma and small patches of eczema.

The most significant change was really to breakfast. From cheese sandwiches or cereals with milk, I switched to healthier options like peanut butter sandwiches and fruit with Greek-style yogurt (above). Later on, I discovered over-the-counter supplements like Dairy Care (the local equivalent of the American Lactaid), which help me eat what I like (like desserts!) in moderate doses. And thank goodness there's no lactose in dark chocolate! Meiji for the win!

Went wakeboarding for the first time... almost. K invited Marlon and I to go on a day trip to Batam, Indonesia, for wakeboarding at a cable ski park. We were with an entire gaggle of German men (over twenty of them!), parang Renner Ensemble lang. Haha.

I say almost because I decided to let Marlon represent us in the aqua sports department...

while I lazed, read, tanned and enjoyed the other delights of Batam, such as cheap massages and satay.

Invested in my career. It really makes you feel quite adult when you realize your most significant gadget purchases are no longer for recreation, but for professional use. And I say that with the least amount of shopper's remorse/post-rationalization as I can muster. It also makes you feel quite adult when you realize that you actually paid for these things with money that you earned yourself.

I look forward to learning to create my own personal video projects on my new Canon 550D (which came with a free electronic dry box, tripod and many other freebies!), and learning to edit them on my new Macbook Pro. I guess you could say my mind finally caught up to the reality that I'm no longer "just" a writer, but a producer too.

Celebrated my favorite Singaporean festival. Oh, Mid-Autumn Festival, how I love thee and the mooncakes thee bringeth! At one point, I think we had nine mooncakes at home. My favorite is still the classic lotus seed without yolk (to which mooncake auntie said: "No yolk?! But the moon is the yolk!"), but Lilian gave me this very pretty and very tasty pumpkin mooncake that is a serious contender.

Met up with friends from home. Tons of visitors this month! There was Mira, who came over to visit her Singaporean boy, and Pastor and Pastorella Tica, whom I didn't even get to meet up with anymore...

Sir Jojo, who came over to conduct workshops and prompt Paul into hosting a lovely intimate dinner at his casa...

And preggy Elaine with her hardcore biker hubby, who happened to come over on a weekend when Marlon and I planned a biking trip! Perfect!

Checked a long-standing item off our Singapore "must-do" list. With my (relatively) new-found cycling skills, Marlon and I finally made the day trip to Pulau Ubin, an island off the east coast that is the last undeveloped frontier of Singapore.  The main activity there is biking, so we couldn't have done this until I learned how to bike.

It took the greater part of the day, with some difficult uphill pushes. But it was all worth it—I love to discover new places. And many times, it felt like we weren't even in Singapore anymore.

We had great company in Elaine and Paul and their UP Arki friends. Together, we laughed and camwhored and pushed and biked and walked and finally...

Ate the tastiest, cheapest best chili crab in Singapore. It's on another island, yes, but even with the boat fare it's still cheaper than any on the mainland.

Looking back at these, now I feel better about September having stampeded past; like "Oh, so that's where it went!" And suddenly, now it's October... which brings with it new and exciting developments. Abangan!