Down the Rabbit Hole

All the symptoms are starting to show: Christmas songs on the radio, parols on display, the belen being set up in UPLB, the cool wind in the middle of the day, early sunsets... and then, there's the typical "Holidays are coming..." hum of the Christmas Coca-Cola advertisement on the telly that I saw over the weekend. Once the Nescafe Christmas ad comes out, I'll be convinced that Christmas has finally arrived.

Rating: ★★★★ Category: Restaurants Cuisine: Thai Location: 2225 Irving St, San Francisco, CA Another restaurant review... I ordered the tom yum chicken (as usual) in Marnee Thai, and I find that this version has a milder taste than what I'm used to. The tom yum version in Los Banos is more sour, while the version in Sydney (Thai Times 9) is more on the chili side. Yet another good meal for me!

Tyrannosaurus rex , the real threat to California's biodiversity? I took the picture at this angle while on queue to the rainforest exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. 

I decided to drive home unusually early one Saturday afternoon, right after my visit to the dentist (opting to skip the typical stopover in Glorietta), with the intention of beating the traffic jam on EDSA. Obviously, I was unsuccessful on this attempt; I was able to whip out the camera and take pictures, seen here, because the queue wasn't moving fast enough. The slow movement was beneficial to the road vendors... This man was able to sell a lot of bottled water because it was so hot and humid inside the tunnel (the photo was taken mid-May, hence the heat). Other people were selling battery-operated fans, towels, and caps. Anyway, the traffic jam disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared... driving was a breeze after the Magallanes overpass.

Rating: ★★★★ Category: Restaurants Cuisine: Asian Location: Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines I loved the halaan soup, which was what I had intended to order because of the restaurant's name. The food is a bit pricey, but well worth it. Plus, the place is well-lit, and very clean. A place I would definitely eat in again... specially since it's easily accessible, and the parking lot isn't too crowded during the dinner hour.

This trip just assured me of one thing: I don't have an appreciation for the taste of wine. Four out of five wines were too bitter. The last one was sweet, almost a dessert wine, which I liked. Despite me not liking the taste of wine, I liked going over the process of wine-making, which is really interesting. Grapes are pressed, the juice is fermented, aged, and then bottled. Although I was introduced to the concept of fermentation in my Microbiology courses, being in an actual winery puts things into their proper scale. That, and the spectacular view of the Napa Valley under the yellow-orange tints of the late afternoon sun, plus the beautiful Tuscan-inspired architecture of the facility, made my day. The icing on the cake was the cable car ride from the parking lot to the winery itself. This reminded me of the cable car ride in Taronga Zoo and the monorail trip to the gates of Magic Kingdom in Disneyworld. I enjoyed the view of the vineyard and the pond below as the cable...

October 19, 2008 -- The family dropped by to say good bye to Kuya Mitchie, Che, and Miggy because they were flying off to New Zealand two days later. And the spotlight is on five-month old Miggy of course! Couldn't help but think about how the baby girl Mary was doted on by her dads in "Three Men and A Baby" just before she was temporarily whisked off by her Mom.

Rating: ★★★ Category: Movies Genre: Comedy It's a funny take on the upcoming US elections... The future of the most powerful country in the world rests upon the vote of a man who was never concerned about anything other than himself. The political machinery of both prominent candidates descended upon an unknown town in New Mexico all to get that man's vote. The movie questions the willingness of candidates to put principles in the backburner just to get the vote, and gives a glimpse of how outsiders, particularly international media, would react to the political mudslinging. It also touched upon the relevant issues the two real-life candidates must address in their campaigns prior to November's polls; some of these issues are the influx of immigrant workers and the debate on pro-life vs pro-choice. In the end, the results of the election is never shown, and the movie never suggested which of the two candidates won.

Kuya Rico, my cousin who I haven't seen in 20 years, got married on September 26, 2008. And I was able to drop in and attend it! The schedule was quite tight: I collected my luggage in Chicago's O'Hare close to 9am, after an overnight flight from Honolulu (with a connecting flight from Minneapolis at 7am), and Kuya Rico's wedding was at 4pm in Mundelein, a suburb about an hour's drive north from downtown Chicago. Good thing Kuya Allan, who is based in Michigan, was available to fetch me from the airport... naturally, my mom, ninang, and brother were with him! Daddy and Ninong Romy were not with them because they were playing golf. As soon as I set my bags down at the hotel, the kuyas, and Biboy hauled me to the reception venue, a barn that Charlenne's (the bride) relatives were decorating. I helped out with setting up the bar with drinks arranged by type. I then had lunch with them, and caught up with my parents and godparents before preparing for the afterno...

My Talk This is the first time I had to talk twice in a conference! The first time was expected... I was scheduled to talk on Monday. However, as soon as I started to relax, my IRRI supervisor, Melissa, popped the surprise to me: I was presenting a second time! In the next few hours! I felt like iced water was thrown at me at that moment... I was dumbstruck! So naturally, I had to go through the motions of getting nervous for a talk once again: loss of appetite, clammy hands, butterflies in the stomach (and I ate a heavy breakfast of bagels and cheese a few hours before too), the works. And then there's the absolute requirement: I had to go for a long walk... so I ended up going back to the hotel to retrieve my presentation. In the end, I was happy with both presentations, although I think I performed better in the first one (and attribute that to the unexpected nature of the second one). However, the second one generated a better discussion session, even though I h...

A picture of sea lions in San Francisco's Pier 39 was captured by a satellite camera and uploaded in GoogleEarth. I came across this image as soon as a high resolution image was available (about the same time the picture of elephants walking across the savannah in Africa were observed by avid GoogleEarth users). Naturally, I was excited to see the sea lions up close as soon as details of my trip to San Francisco were finalised. My first, and unexpected, encounter with sea lions in the US was actually at the Lincoln Park Zoo. An aquarium contained quite a few of these swimmers, and while observing them, the discussion on what the difference was between a seal and a sea lion started in the family. Everyone was stumped by the question; leaving that unanswered, we went into the indoor observation section of the seal aquarium. Little did we know that behind me was the answer: It just shows that we need to keep our eyes peeled for the answer... we were in a zoo, af...

Photos taken at Tita Dory's house.

i thought i could stand the cold in my shorts. but i was wrong; after standing there for a few minutes, i just had to go to the loo and change into a pair of jeans... still freezing though and only two hours to see the city. I was there for the STARCH conference at the University of Nottingham in March 2008. In Birmingham International Airport: Immigration Officer (seeing me in t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers): Do you think it's summer here? Rochie (just arrived from Manila): Why, isn't it summer yet? Immigration Officer : No. It's still winter. Rochie (who just left the tropical summer of Manila and of Brisbane) --> O_o

The host said that this was a food tasting event, and NOT dinner. But the amount of food given per person was too much even for my appetite. Everyone had a lot of fun tasting food from different countries... it's like going around the world in two hours! Photo credits: Dara Daygon

On one of their last days at work, the interns took a few minutes off to party, and to be captured on film by international media persons visiting the lab.

with Tita Ising, Tito Seving, and Lola Bats.

Bleeding Love (by Leona Lewis), the song that kept being aired by this morning radio show in Brisbane, made my ears bleed. Pictures from my visits to the Sunshine State in 2008.

This year has been one of the toughest for me because of the time constraint in finishing up my thesis. As a result, I haven't been playing any sport, I rarely slept for more than four hours a day (but this started in September 2006), I was typing away almost non-stop for more than 12 hours, and my diet has shifted towards caffeinated, high-sugar foods to keep me awake during the extended writing periods. I have only refrained from consuming salty food because I was too scared of having a repeat attack of urinary tract infection (specially since I drive myself to work, and I wouldn't want to make a mess in the car), although I was really tempted to binge on chips. But I passed the toughest part, which was the week running up to my submission date. And now, I'm slowly going back to the sane schedule; sans the jet lag from my last trip, I could now sleep continuously for six hours and I am back to eating normal, high-fibre food. The return to my normal diet ...

It rained the last time we were there, so we were given Rainy Day passes. We went back two weeks later; the nephews and niece absolutely loved it! Anna and I thank Ate Liza for giving us tickets to the park. :D

Photo album:  https://goo.gl/photos/QQmTV2KDwrMX17sM9 First stop, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and then a city tour courtesy via public transportation (bus, what else?), and then capping the day off at Millennium Park. A great summer day in the windy city... although I was quite surprised that it wasn't windy at all.