The rain hasn’t let up since…it seems forever! The last time I saw the mighty sun shining on my skin was almost over a week if i’m not mistaken. Now to my question yesterday on what to do on a rainy day? Most of us really don’t have a choice but to just stay home and sleep. But here’s what I do when I’m not sleeping. I cook.

So I dug up my mother’s old recipe books and found the perfect dish for this wet weather. Champorado. It’s sweet chocolate porridge, traditionally served with evaporated milk and tuyo (dried salted fish).
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last night, i drove all the way from makati to quezon city to bring a friend home and to pick up someone from ABS CBN ELJ building. you see, i am one of the four resident interior decorators of At Home Ka Dito. we are basically tasked to do room makeovers for celebrities and in return they do a good deed to the community. yesterday, i have to do an ocular for the daughter of Dina Bonnevie, Danica Sotto. so after picking up the staff from ABS CBN ELJ building, we went to Ayala Heights for the ocular. the room was quite big and it really needs a makeover. help is badly required. hehehe.

after the ocular, i brought the staff back to ABS CBN, and since it was a Sunday and i expected no heavy traffic along the the major roads, i took EDSA going back to Makati. the drive was smooth and going pretty light until i arrived at the Crossing underpass (or as they call it, “ilalim”) and there was just so much cars. and i wonder, what could have been the caused of all this? guess what, i soon figured out from a friend whom i was talking to because i got bored in the traffic that a billboard (posted near the boni MRT station) fell from the side of EDSA causing to block the traffic. whew! it was quite a long and boring drive. argh!

My first post in Metroblogging Manila has something to do with a combination of other firsts: Manila (the first city I came to love) and books (my first passion). And the timing couldn’t be any better.

The forthcoming 27th Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) is just a little over a week away. Scheduled August 30 to September 3 at the World Trade Center in Pasay, it is the Philippine book trade’s special offering to booksellers, publishers, institutional buyers and bookworms. Whether you’re an exhibitor or a visitor, one simply cannot miss this event. As a child who grew up reading the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, now absorbed in rather more mature classic and contemporary fiction, I know I won’t.

As the official MIBF website says:

Attended by more than fifty thousand people in a week with over a hundred local and foreign exhibitors that showcase hundreds and thousand of books, magazines, periodicals, journals and other educational materials and equipment – it’s the undisputed premiere book event in the country!

The MIBF’s mantra captures it just perfectly. Indeed, it is all about “making it a habit”. I’ll see you all there, eh?

So what do you do on a rainy Metro Manila weekend? The best thing really is to just stay home and sleep. Welcome to me here in Metroblogging.

My friend and I were wandering around Gateway, when we saw this decorated alley somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd floor. Curious, we went on inside and saw that it was a showroom for the condominiums that will rise around the Araneta Center. Since we’re always eager for decorating ideas, we joined the fray and went inside all the model units.

Of course, an angent was assigned to give us a tour of the place. I really didn’t listen much to his prattling, because I was distracted by shiny objects, but one thing he said stuck to me:

“Araneta Center will be renamed to Manhattan Garden City.”

Or something to that effect. But still… what the heck!?

aren’t you amazed on the creativity of the filipinos? above is a fountain created by a filipino known here and abroad, his name is reggie yuson.

debenhams will opens its doors to patrons on Aug 24 at Rustan’s Makati. i guess this is one of the moves of one of the biggest retailers in the country, Rustan’s Commercial Corporation, to make international brands reachable to the Manilenos. this move would hopefully bring more foot traffic in Rustan’s Makati thus hopefully increasing its sales.

retail is one of the economies in our country that we have to maximize. look at singapore, one of the main reasons that their economy is really rising is because of the money that the government generates from the retail industry. i think if our gov’t will be able to maximize the said industry, we would be able to increase tax collections (provided that there will be less corruptions). hehehe. plus the fact that we can market our country as a leisure destination with all the resorts that are scattered within our 7,107 islands (high-tide) hehehe. visit http://www.wowphilippines.com.ph/. if that happens, our gov’t will have lots of money. less corruption, please!

I came upon the most interesting entry in Carlos Celdran’s blog:

Domina Jane of San Francisco and Los Angeles
Mistress of fetish/BDSM/Disciplinary Arts.
Guest lecturer at The Living Room for September
Unit 24, North Syquia, 1991 MH del Pilar.
September 1, 2006
9:00pm to 11:00pm

A former dominatrix by profession, Ms. Domina Jane has agreed to pander to all our inadequate souls and hold an introduction/workshop on Fetish/Bondage/BDSM to educate us on the intricacies of this way of life. The night will include but not be limited to: a Fetish Frame slideshow; Shibari – The Art of Rope Bondage – an explanation/demonstration of D/S: Dominance and Submission and S/M: Sadomasochism; plus a lecture on Safety on the Edge: Safety Tips for Kinky Play. Volunteers necessary.

I’m not really in the Dom/Sub scene, but I’ve thought of stalking out the venue to see who’d be attending this event. And if somebody would go dressed up as Razor Ramon Sumitani.

The Pasig river, that is.

The mere mention of ilog Pasig sends shivers down every Manileño’s spine, along with mental pictures of a black, putrid, dead body of water. This morning, I found out that it wasn’t so bad afterall.

A cruise down the river from the mouth of the Manila bay all the way to the Mangahan floodgates showed us a river with brownish-green water (not black), not filled with garbage (there are still garbage, but it’s not as much as you’d expect), thriving with life (on the banks, anyway).

It’s amazing how the metro looks from this side of the river. There are plenty of architectural wonders you wouldn’t see when you travel by road: from beautiful pre- and post-war buildings to muti-storey homes on stilts lining the river banks and under the bridges.

You can really see how much the rehabilitation of the Pasig river is progressing. It may not be as clean as it was back in Rizal’s time, and though it may not become as clean, you can see its potential. Aside from the rehabilitation, the plan for resurrecting a ferry system is now being implemented. Ferry ports are now being constructed in various points along the river, from Manila to Marikina. As someone who fell in love with Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River Express, this is wonderful news and probably much more so for those living near the river.

The Historic Cruise of the Pasig River with Prof. Ambeth Ocampo was organized by the Ayala Museum, in conjencture with the Ode to the Pasig River exhibit. If you’re interested in joining the cruise, you can inquire at the Ayala Museum.

Interesting news from Manila Times:

3 people are killed every day in Metro

According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, which make up Calabarzon, recorded 1,352 killings in 2004 and 1,290 in 2005. From January to June this year, 641 cases of homicide and murder have been recorded.

Not reassuring at all even if some of the cases can be mistagged (Murder instead of Homicide?) according to the news report. Anyway, if this is an upward Trend, the police definitely has to do something.
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