Seventh heaven

The seventh month of the year was busy, busy, busy! I can't even remember everything that happened. And my cam suffered a painful death on the last day of the month, so photos are kind of unavailable right now. So it's a relatively picture-less post!

The standouts (a lot are wedding-related!):

Kobe! Kobe! Thanks to OK! Magazine, I got an awesome Special Ringside ticket to see Kobe Bryant at the Ultra. (Luckily, there aren't really a lot of basketball fans at the office. Haha.) I'm not a big Kobe fan, but at least I'm not a Kobe hater, and it was as close as I was going to get to seeing a live NBA game for now! Haha. It was just surreal seeing the MVP in person. Thank goodness I wore my contacts!

Coni almost caught an autographed ball!

My first fitting! The fabulous Enan Almado called me for my first Big Day gown fitting. It was just the lining, but it already fell so beautifully! I have a photo of me fitting, but taken from the side--my unmentionables could be seen in front because the beadwork hadn't been done yet, and all there was was a big cutout where the Indian-inspired bling is supposed to be. No posting as of now, in the off chance that Fiance reads my blog and sees it! Not until the day itself!

Meeting Tita Bai. H and I went all the way to Intramuros to Barbara's (post to follow in my neglected food blog), where we met up with the woman that the resto was named after. Tita Barbara, or Tita Bai, is good friends with H's mom, and is one of our beloved sponsors. She was very accommodating and fed us a delectable lunch! It was just cool visiting the area with H.

We don't often find ourselves in the cobblestoned streets of Manila.

It's official. We can officially get hitched now, after getting our marriage license! Woohoo! And, of course, who could forget that riot of a family planning seminar at Quezon City Hall? One of the unexpected highlights of the wedding preps!

Back at Bellini's. Sort of--we didn't go to Cubao X this time. On a break from the Seminar That Wouldn't End, H and I decided to have lunch at the 10-year-old Marikina branch of Bellini's. Yummmmmmm.

Sweet wine to end our meal of chicken with herbs, truffle cream risotto, and a tiramisu gelato cake.

Indoor picnic. Not only has my trusty Canon Ixus died, but my phone cable is also missing--so I can't download photos from my phone. Boo! For now, let me just describe our unique date for the month: a picnic at our new, nearly empty house! We decided to visit our new place one evening, with nothing but a brand new electric fan (our first home purchase! Haha), some grub, a banig, and H's laptop. We laid out the banig, sat on the floor, used the electric fan's box as a makeshift table, and feasted on KFC while listening to music from H's computer! Cheers to our new home!

Final food tasting. We went over to our lovely caterer Kaye Cunanan's place and just ate and ate and ate. Luckily, I had Martha Stewart Weddings editor in chief Tata in tow to help me make decisions. I trust her opinion more than I do my own. Haha.

Kaye: Would you like all carrot rice or half plain, half carrot?
Me: Hmmm...half and half.
Tata: Hmmm...don't you want to do all carrot? I think most people would go for that, and once there's only plain left over, the others will feel like they missed out.
Me: OK, all carrot rice then.

~*~*~*~

Kaye: Would you like green flowers or white flowers?
Me: Green.
Tata: Hmmm...don't you want all white flowers?
(And after she said that, of course I did. Hahaha.)

I find such comfort in the fact that Tata says our food will be delicious! I just want our guests to pig out.

Mini CADs reunion. Triple8Funk founder Joel (aka Sloj, aka my Nikki's baby daddy. Haha) took a break from being New Zealand's hiphop guru and swung by the PI. It was unfortunately too late when I broached the idea of an alumni dance workshop, but hey, there's always next time! It was cool just hangin' with the ever-humble Sloj--and getting a rockin' T8F shirt to boot!

The T8F shirt is considered alimony.

Poker night. I dropped by SP's fund-raising poker tourney after my first bridal shower (which is a highlight, but I'm doing an all-in-one post for all my showers!) just to give a small donation and say hi, but ended up staying for over an hour, just catching up with an old friend! It was so cool seeing Dindi and just yapping and making a whole lot of noise in a place where barely anyone knew me. Ahehe.

Wrecking my cam. I'll admit, I was so incredibly bummed when it happened. After learning how much it was going to cost to have it fixed, and realizing that I barely have enough moolah to spare for a new one (Big Day + home renovation + stuff that'll go into new home = daym!), I just felt so down. I couldn't believe that I wasn't going to have a camera to document my last few weeks of singlehood.

But after my bachelorette party, I realized that maybe wrecking my cam was a good thing, a blessing in disguise. I was able to just be in the moment, and didn't have to think about snap-snap-snapping away. And the more I reflected on it, the more I figured out that I tend to use my camera as a crutch. When I'm uncomfortable or bored or simply tamad to make conversation, I just whip out my cam and take pictures. Now, I'm all about just being there and talking to people and laughing. And having my photo taken by someone else! Because really, someone else is bound to have a cam!

Silver linings rock!

Independence date

In large part due to The Big Day, H and I have had to put our travel plans on hold. Frustrated that I couldn't get out of the country, I told him one day that it would be nice if we would become travelers in our country.

Turista shot in front of the National Museum

I realized that there were so many places in my own country--in Manila alone--that I had never seen, so it was about time that I, we, got to know our own home. Plus, it would give us a different kind of date each time!

Our first date? The National Museum of the Philippines on Independence Day. (Papa G: "Wow! Nationalistic!") I first caught a glimpse of it when I read about a wedding reception held there. There was a picture of the museum with a red carpet over its grand steps, the bride walking up. Fabulous! And when I researched on it, I learned that there were two different museums in the complex: one for visual arts, and another detailing the history of the Filipino people.

After getting a little lost in Manila, we finally found the museum along P. Burgos Street. It was different from the wedding photo I saw--we went straight to the visual arts building so the pic must have depicted the other museum. It was a yellow building with pillars out front and a short flight of stairs; the driveway, which also served as the parking lot, was almost completely vacant.

The visual arts museum entrance free is P100; the Museum of the Filipino People entrance fee is P70. You could gain access to both for just P150. We didn't have much time so we decided to see the visual arts museum, then just wing it from there.

I realized that I had seen the Mona Lisa, many of Van Gogh's works (including my favorite, The Starry Night), and the Sistine Chapel, but I had never even thought to see Juan Luna's Spoliarium. (Yup, it's actually got an "i" before the "a"!) And it was indeed an awe-inspiring sight! Alas, we weren't allowed to take photos. But if you have the time, do head on over to the museum, even just to see this. It's a massive painting depicting slain Roman gladiators, and the whole thing covers an entire wall on the first floor.

It was cool going around this museum because it wasn't crowded at all. I actually thought we were the only ones there, our voices and footsteps the only ones echoing through the first-floor gallery. Upon reaching the second floor, we found a couple of families looking around. But these were nothing like the crowds at the Met, or the Louvre, or MoMa. It's the way I thought a museum should be--quiet!

In one wing, we got to see a big-ass skeleton of a sperm whale! We also viewed more works by the masters and national artists (whose names would not have been familiar had I not had a job that exposed me to art), and some modern things like H's favorite, Machines of God (it's sort of like a mannequin with wings and a Darth Vader head). I like realism more than abstract art, but H seems to favor the abstract. And art enthusiasts would probably shoot us if they heard how we interpreted the pieces! (Our comments not to be published here because they'll betray just how uncultured we are.) People fear what they do not understand, I suppose!

All in all, a very interesting date. I am no art expert, and there's so much I don't know and understand, but it was great having that experience with H. Never thought being at a museum could actually be that much fun.

National Museum of the Philippines, P. Burgos Street, Manila; tel. (632) 528-4912; open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm; nationalmuseum.gov.ph