Down the Rabbit Hole

On October 23–26, I was stationed at Robinsons Supermarket at Forum Robinsons (in Mandaluyong) as a member of an experimental auction team (with a sensory evaluation component in it). This activity, a component of a brainchild hatched by Matty and me last year (when I was still a postdoc fellow) finally started becoming a reality in the Philippines! We had first tested the idea purely through sensory evaluation activities during Madrid Fusìon Manila . What made the latest activity doubly exciting was that this was our first experiment in an urban shopping mall (our sincerest and most heartfelt thanks to Robinsons Malls for partnering with us on this) and our first test of a novel variation of the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction (devised by Matty)... and one more thing, this was the first time that I acted as animator in an experimental auction!  Members of the team who made this experimental auction possible was Anna de Guia, a MSc student in UPLB whose research topic was a...

Here we go again with my habit of pointing at things. My mom keeps saying it invites bad fortune but I keep doing it anyway, asking what this and that are... And so, while boating on Saturday, I kept pointing to two islands we have never seen before. These are Balahibongmanoc Island and Bonito Island off the eastern coast of Maricaban Island. Unfortunately, the waves were too high to go any closer to any of these islands. At some point, I thought while we were attempting to reach it, I'd like to visit Balahibongmanoc Island because there are hot springs under the water out there! But I guess I need to get a diver's license first to do that. And then there's Bonito Island, which I wanted to see as well... But after I learned that sharks actually lay eggs around that area, I lost interest in visiting the island. Maybe someday, I'll revisit the idea of diving and getting close to sharks. Note: SOMEDAY!! As we were being swished back and forth on the jet-boat ...

Thanks to wakeboarding , I've started having an appreciation for watercraft and water forms. This, particularly since I've always loved to explore new places (hello, 16-hour drive to Ilocandia !). And so whenever we end up in Mabini, Batangas, I have the tendency to point at spots I've never visited before. And that, for me, marked the beginning of our exploration of the islands around Calumpang Peninsula.  So, as of today, we have visited quite a few islands. Southwest of the Calumpang Pensinsula, we've driven past Sombrero Island, wakeboarded along the westward coast of Maricaban Island (from Sepoc Point all the way to Bunjar Island, if I'm not mistaken) and in between Maricaban and Caban Islands. Along Balayan Bay, on the other hand, we've gone boating around Ligpo Island (where Matty might have had a turtle sighting), wakeboarded from Anilao Beach Club towards Le Chèvrerie to the southwest of the Calumpang Peninsula and up northwest to the coast of San ...

Anna celebrated her birthday this year in Sta Cruz, Laguna. We ended up in Jookin's Cafe... where the saxophonist and the keyboardist were playing standards for the crowd's enjoyment. It was a celebration with the cousins, the nephews, the nieces, the aunts, and the Ates. Family bonding at its best. Happy birthday, Anna! :) Joyeux anniversaire, Anna!! 😄🎉 A photo posted by Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) on Oct 3, 2015 at 4:53am PDT