The anime-ish artworks that sometimes appear in giant billboards in EDSA have got to be some of the more attractive marketing collaterals I’ve seen plastered on such medium. I find out that the man behind these, GP Magazine editor-in-chief and creative director Kenji Nunez, will mount his coming out exhibit “Neon World of KBoi: The Art of Kenji Nunez” on 30 November to 07 December 2006 at the Ricci Renzo Café and Art Gallery at the at the ground floor LRI Building, Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo St.) Bel-Air Village, Makati City. Nunez’s artworks have debuted in magazines, print ads, internet sites, and, as I’ve mentioned, huge billboards. The 30 artworks that will be on exhibit feature Nunez’s “interpretation of the pink community.” And for the die-hard art collectors, the artworks will be on sale, proceeds of which will benefit the Gift Foundation which promotes AIDS awareness and prevention.

Amidst the drudgeries of daily living, you here news that in some way lighten your load even for just a few minutes and make you forget about that nagging deadline, the traffic in the metro, that annoying billboard in EDSA, or that anonymous reader who has the guts to insult your intelligence but doesn’t have the ba**s to identify himself. There is still good news in Manila after all, or at least on a plane bound to Manila. A 22-year-old Filipino working student gave birth prematurely to a healthy baby boy onboard a KLM plane from Amsterdam. Because of this, the plane had to make an emergency stopover at Kazakhstan, but not before Betchel Banal broke her water bag, had labor pains, and finally gave birth to her son with the assistance of a Filipino doctor who was also a passenger and the plane’s flight attendant. Read more about this story here. I don’t know about you, but I sure do need to hear news of this nature a lot more often.

You don’t have money anymore and it’s still days before sweldo. What do you do with only a few pesos in your pocket? You scrimp. You scrimp on food. But scrimping doesn’t have to hurt. You just have to be creative. Depending on how you see it, bad times can be breeding ground for creative culinary adventures.

Take for example my brother’s Ginataang Papaya. But before I give you the recipe, let me tell you the quick story behind this recipe. My youngest brother, because he is still hunting for a job after graduating last March, is the default housekeeper. Among other household duties, he takes care of budgeting the money I give him for our food. Now last week, he used some of the money for a personal expense which he thought was just okay with me. He was wrong there. So I told him he had to make do with what’s left of the money I gave him. That’s how this recipe was born.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized green papaya
2 cans of spicy sardines
1 pack of instant coconut milk
Onion
Garlic
Cooking oil

Procedure:
1. Cut the papaya into small slices the way you’d cut sayote.
2. Crush the sardines in its sauce.
3. Saute the garlic and onion in hot oil. Add the crushed sardines.
4. Add in the papaya and the coconut milk.
5. Leave until the papaya is cooked. Its consistency should be like that of laing.

Ginataang Papaya is best served freshly cooked with any kind of fried fish. Try niyo!

Just in case you still haven’t heard (you probably just came out of a thousand year slumber), Malacanang has declared October 24, 2006, a Tuesday, as a regular holiday throughout the country. Proclamation no 1155 says it aims “to promote cultural understanding and integration, the entire Filipino nation should have the full opportunity to join their Muslim brothers and sisters in the observance and celebration of Eid’l Fitr.”

Eid’l Fitr or Feast of Ramadan marks then end of 40 days of fasting for our Muslim brothers and sisters. This celebration only started having relevance to me when I met my good friend Al who’s a Muslim. Hariraya puasa! (I hope I got that right.)

If you’ve had enough of the flavored green tea fad, here’s something that might interest you better. Mine Shine Finest Quality Milk Tea is my most recent addiction.

I can’t believe how since last week I’ve been buying myself this every night on my way home. If you’ve tried Chowking’s Nai Cha, the taste is close to that. Mine Shine, though, is less sweet and it doesn’t have jelly cubes. I find drinking it therapeutic. I know it’s just all in the head but it works for me. Try it. I think 7-Eleven distributes this exclusively since I don’t see it anywhere else. A 600-ml plastic bottle sells for P 39.

These were taken from the 5th floor of a condominium across my office where the company president celebrated her 50th birthday while all hell broke lose outside.

As a sign of goodwill (smell the sarcasm), the company let the employees who braved the typhoon home early. These next photos I took while walking my way toward the MRT (which was out of service during the typhoon so I ended up taking a bus.)
Legaspi Park

Rada Street

Greenbelt/Ayala

My office is right smack in the middle of Legaspi Village. The building affords us a view of the lush greens of Legaspi Park where I love to pass by every morning especially during summer when all the kalachuchi trees are in full bloom. Kalachuchi reminds me so much about my childhood in my Lola Milings house. She has two or three kalachuchi trees in her yard and I’m lovin it when the white, red, and pink flowers start falling. And their scent, although not universally appealing, never fail to enchant my sense of smell.

The only thing that almost turned me off was that I was made to wait for almost 20 minutes in the counter when there were only two of us paying. I don’t know if it’s because i’m paying using my credit card or the cashiers were doing more tsismis than actual work. But overall, the experience was pleasant.

It has been 6 straight days of darkness in my place starting Thursday last week. And it has been 6 straight nights that I have been going home from work hoping there’d be light. It has been also 5 workings days that I’ve not been wearing my uniform to work because, although all of them are washed fresh, none of them are pressed. I hope that the power comes back before I run out of decent clothes for work. The worse part which makes me feel a whole rotten pissed is that in the vicinity where I live, ONLY our street doesn’t have power. Can things get better than that? And what better way to start off my day but with a news from a friend in the office (Their power has been restored since Thursday night last week, the night of the typhoon.) that he saw in the news this morning that the power outage is predicted to last for 2 more months. I tuned out immediately. Whether he was kidding, I can’t tell. I’m pissed.

Since a friend introduced me to Robert Kiyosake’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, my interest was piqued by “wise” books that enrich lives. I dare not call them self-help books because personally the tag connotes individual helplessness, a dire need for rescue. You don’t have to be in the mire to appreciate the insights these books offer.

Jack Canfield, one of the co-creator of the widely read Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books (that’s just one of the 110 that he has written), will be in the country to share some more of his astute insights on 02 October 2006 at the Crowne Plaza Galleria Hotel.

He will be sharing his insights on how to cultivate a culture of success in your personal life and career. I assume his discussion will take off from his book The Success Principles. Sure, he’ll make you go there, give you sprinkling of thoughts about this and that, and you end up buying the book. I guess that’ll be no bad if you’re into this whole self-improvement mode. I am.

The seminar is brought here by International Training and Development (www.itd.com).