Down the Rabbit Hole

It's not everyday that I encounter chefs, business people, movie stars, and food enthusiasts in my line of work. But during the times when I do bump into them, I feel like I've gone into an alternate universe... maybe not. Let's just say I feel like a country mouse out in the big city. And what a metropolis it was for this country bumpkin during the Madrid Fusion Manila event!  I was at the SMX Convention Centre with the IRRI contingent of the Heirloom Rice Project because I had a rice tasting segment in the seminar about heirloom rice. The unique thing about this event was that I got to meet chefs like Robby Goco (Cyma), Jessie Sincioco (Top of the Citi), Amy Besa (Purple Yam), Fernando Aracama (Aracama), Rob Pengson (The Goose Station), Chele Gonzalez  (Gallery Vask), and Carlos Garcia (The Black Pig)... people who I could only dream of meeting if it were not for the assignments I get at work! Anyway, aside from the opportunity to meet chefs, I got to try...

On to Part 2 of the Laguna day trip of the doctors... It was a perfectly sunny day to be outdoors and we weren't too tired yet. So after our visit to the twin lakes of San Pablo City , we took off to Nagcarlan, Laguna... the home of the underground cemetery . I've been to the Underground Cemetery three years ago. I never realised, until this trip, that I haven't been to this side of Laguna for a long time. I'm amazed that each time I visit, I find new features of the cemetery to focus on. Last time, it was all about the feeling of solitude exuded by the place. Today, it was about the fleeting nature of life and the finality of death... See, it started when I walked up to the gate of the Underground Cemetery. Old people were hobbling towards the gate and a child was attempting to fly a kite on the cemetery's garden. As I walked the red brick path, I noticed that the gate and the red stone walls were overgrown with weeds and mosses, as if marking the passa...

San Pablo is known to be the city with the seven lakes. On National Heroes' Day, I went with Matty (we're the PhDs), Noan, Martin, and Lawrence (they're the MDs), and Erjohn (appointed as the official photographer) to see Pandin Lake... because the day was too beautiful to be spent indoors. Noan took care of all the arrangements and reservations. We just had to show up, basically.  Going to the lake from the parking lot proved to involve a bit of a walk under the minimal shade of coconut trees. Not a problem, since we'd be under the sun while in and on the lake anyway. The walk towards the lake also gave a sense of anticipation because we couldn't see the lake from the road.  A few minutes into the walk, we finally had our first glance of the lake... and it was beautiful! It's peaceful and the water's flat. Deceptively safe, I'd say, since the water is very deep. The guide said that the water must be around 180 ft deep; I wouldn't jump...

What an earworm! I don't know which one's more memorable, Matty's singing to an unknown tune with unintelligible lyrics or the saxophone solo which sounded awfully familiar. See, Matty put Jo and me to task to find a popular song from the 90s that may possibly be added to the playlist we listen to when we're wakeboarding. Alas, to no avail because there are no songs about "Eliza pulling shoes". And we searched on Google and YouTube for hours while we were going to Calatagan ! and then when we were going back to Calamba! and then days after! The saxophone solo, however... I knew I heard that before. My mind turned towards Parokya Ni Edgar's Bagsakan , which had a similar rhythm. It's wasn't quite right, though. But I insisted that I've heard it before... then it dawned to me: Pitbull used that same solo as a sample in one of his songs! Which song that is was the question because I only listen to it when it's played on the radio (he...

I was editing a photo from the Korea winter vacation . And then, like an earworm, Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening began playing in my head. Thank you, Prof Connie Apalin-Gaffud for forcing me to memorise a handful of the classics in my third year in high school. :) I like that poem because the imagery is so vivid. I could just picture it in my head: It's dark outside, the roads full of snow. The horse's bell is tinkling, breaking the silence in the forest. Time appeared to be standing still as the narrator paused to take in the scene surrounding him and the horse. Somehow, the image of the sun and the silhouette of the branches underneath (with snow... not in the frame) got me to think about this poem. Only that I was outside in the early afternoon, hiking up Yongpyong's Dragon Peak... far from alone because I was with a big group of people of different nationalities. Of course, there were no horses in sight. In their stead were crows.

Marco said that this was "the best road trip... ever!" . Who's the cool Tita  again? Me!!!!  Alas, all good road trips, even this one to Lobo, had to come to an end. Soon we were packing our stuff back in the car for the long drive back. However, I didn't want to go via Taysan again because there were no lights along the road. And have I said that the road was long, winding, and narrow? With lots of hairpin turns? I was just, straight up, intimidated with the drive back via this route. There's an alternative though (thank goodness!), according to Waze and Google Maps . This new route would have been a scenic coastal route if it were before sunset but it was just dark at night. I thought it was an easier route. No! This route had steep grades and narrow roads. If the hairpin turns in Taysan were devices to help ease vehicles with the steep slope, I had almost none of that in the Batangas-Lobo road. It was just steep up, steep down in succession on the road...

Rochie: Ate Madie, let's go to the beach! Madie: When? Rochie: On Thursday! Madie: Go! And so on a warm Thursday morning, drove off with Trisha and Marco to Lobo (the same group who visited Burot Beach last year). Our destination was Lobo, Batangas. But since it was a Maundy Thursday, we were expecting a long drive because of the traffic jams from Sta Cruz, Laguna to the STAR Tollway. Just getting out of Sta Cruz was a challenge because vehicles going to Pagsanjan were choking both northbound and southbound lanes of the Pan-Philippine Highway (AH26) . Once we've escaped that jam, were slowed down again on AH26 by vehicles queuing (and counter-flowing) towards Tiaong, Quezon. Looks like the city people were moving to the provinces en masse ! We finally escaped the traffic jam when we entered the STAR Tollway, and that was just an extremely quick trip from Sto Tomas to Batangas City. From there, Waze guided us through the long, narrow, and winding road of Taysan, Bata...

It's not everyday I get to encounter a movie whose principal photography took years to make. This is why Boyhood  was fascinating. As the movie progressed, the movie stars aged as well... no plastic surgery; no bodily enhancements... they just grew old in front of my eyes! The story wasn't so much about the journey of a boy through a major chunk of his life. I thought it was more about seeing the world change from his point of view. He grew up and the people around him changed as he did.  It was just refreshing that everything and everyone seemed to develop naturally... unlike in other shows where there's a sense of un-realism because the actors, despite years of being in the same role, have not aged at all. My favourite among the well-developed characters? Ethan Hawke's character growing from a bum dad to this successful role model.