Phantom!

My first experience of watching a theater musical was back when I was in high school when my sister and I got tickets to watch a local production of the Little Mermaid starring Carol Banawa and KC Concepcion. I still remember that time, wanting to buy the CD of the show, but couldn’t because I was just in high school then and my allowance wasn’t enough to purchase that CD.

Fast forward 5 years later in 2008 when I was in Canada, I got to see the CATS musical when it went on tour in Vancouver! I only heard of this musical, but never knew what it was about until that time I watched it. Interesting story, very simple, but what really got me were the costumes, dancing, and of course, the music!

Ever since then, I began my quest to watch musicals. I’m thinking maybe because I now have the resources to watch it (they are quite expensive). I’m very blessed with opportunities that allow me to watch musicals. In Las Vegas, I got to watch The Lion King, and early this year, my friend and I went off to Singapore to catch the Wicked musical there!

And of course, when the longest running musical, The Phantom of the Opera, as part of their Asian tour, decided to drop by Manila, I wouldn’t pass up the chance. Well, I almost did, good thing they extended their show here.

We had tickets for last October 06, 2012’s 8 pm show. Tickets are expensive. But mind you, although tickets were expensive, the shows, I heard, were sold out. And that means only one thing – the show must be that good!  And I could tell you it was a great show. In fact, I ended up buying a program souvenir, which by the way, costs 500 pesos. I can only imagine (and compute!) how much they were earning per show! It’s all worth it after all, because this was a world class production after all!

I know when I really loved a show when I get home, I end up reading about its history, and even watching the 25th anniversary show, and the movie!

Anyway, going back, my favorite part was surprisingly, the masquerade scene! Aside from the catchy tune, I loved how most of the cast was out and about dancing and singing in their colorful costumes. I loved how the curtains dropped unexpectedly, showcasing the casts in their colorful costumes. Napa “Wow” talaga ako! My second favorite would probably be the scene where Phantom, Raoul and Christine were singing altogether! I don’t know how they keep their tunes correct, considering they are singing together, but different of songs and tunes!

So all in all, the pricey ticket was well worth it. Made everything even more worth while was when we were outside on our way to the car, Mr. Raoul shows up in the side stage door and I got to have a nice (but dark) picture taken! No thanks to the camera’s flash, which was, turned off.

Hi Raoul!

Tablet 2.0!

Last Saturday, I rewarded myself with a new toy!

A few weeks back, my ipod touch’s button decided to stop functioning altogether. I haven’t tried getting it fixed yet, although I still use it in my car for music purposes. And there’s also the assistive touch available, which I haven’t tried yet. In other words, I was just looking for a good reason to actually get something new, as a replacement for my ipod touch.

I use my ipod touch for a lot of things – checking my email, doing research, reading various stuff from the web (especially from Wiki), etc. So not being able to use it was quite a challenge at times for the past weeks only because I was used to not having to open my computer anymore to do these things.

For the replacement, I was thinking about getting something bigger than the touch. Initially I just thinking of getting a Kindle instead, something to get me to start reading again. But I’m not quite convinced with Kindle’s product yet (Kindle Fire, that is) and the simple kindle reader was just too one sided for me. It was good for reading, and only reading.

I didn’t want to get an iPhone or something similar because I didn’t want to spend that much and have another small device like the touch. And I didn’t want an iPad or something similar as well because it is quite big, and very expensive too.

And so, my brother suggested, why not get something in the middle then – and the search for the Galaxy Tablet 2 – 7 inches began!

It’s a tablet the size of Kindle, where you can read properly, not too big like the iPad, and not too small like the iPhone, and most important of all, it’s not very expensive at all. Affordable, and right enough size for me.

And I finally have it here, with me, for two days, and so far, I have adjusted to the Andriod experience (which I think by the way, is waaaay better that the Apple experience), and I’ve been enjoying so far. Definitely a good buy. It is deeply integrated with your google account, which is pretty neat, and at the same time, quite scary (as Rhys points out) because of the fact that google knows so much about yourself now!

So now, I’m back online, even gtalk’s available in my tablet now! And I can finally stop opening my laptop all the time just to check something in the web.

Weekend at Baguio

The family and I had a spontaneous weekend getaway to Baguio last weekend! Baguio has always been a nice place to enjoy the lovely cool weather and that’s exactly what we got and more!

My brother, while riding the bus last week, saw an ad some where (in one of the buses, I think) that was advertising discounted rates for the Manor at Camp John Hay. Upon checking the website (and after my officemate willingly covered for my on call work over the weekend), we booked a one bedroom suite plus an extra bed… all for the grand total of 5000+. Not bad at all! 50% discount.

It was definitely worth the price because the room was great! Two baths, two LCD televisions, a spacious living room and dining area, plus a nice cozy bedroom. Impressive. Without the discounted rates, we’d probably end up paying 8000 pesos – 10000 pesos for this room! Thanks to my sister, the pictures below are the only two good ones we have of the room! The rest are no good!

Of course, discounted rates are there in the first place because it is the rainy season after all. Thus, we couldn’t walk around the surrounding areas, but in return though, we did enjoy nice bonding moments while eating and hanging out together (even if it’s just within the confines of the Manor).

There’s really nothing much to see in Baguio these days, however, we did discover a new and highly rated place to go to in Baguio - BenCab Museum. BenCab is National Artist for Visual Arts. This, I would say is a really really nice museum, well maintained, has a clean look, and I can say, world class. 

The museum features various painting and art works from different Filipino artists. These were really good. And since it’s located by the hillside, you actually start from the top most floor, going down a floor at a time until you reach the base (which I believe is 4 levels down), where you are greeted to a nice quaint Café with a nice view of the mountains. Unfortunately, it was raining so we couldn’t walk out the open area. Fortunately though, we see the national artist himself down there and so we couldn’t resist not taking a photo with him.

The museum though, has an entrance fee of 100 pesos which for me, is pretty good price with what you can see around the museum.I find other Baguio attractions and Baguio’s beauty to be deteriorating so this was definitely a breath of fresh air. Beautiful and well kept. It has this high class feel to it. We definitely need more of these well maintained attractions in the summer capital of the Philippines.

All in all, the trip was amazing! Although it was only an overnight trip, I realized that family time is really something we need to set aside time for. Nothing beats hanging out with the family!

Food!

I attended my friend’s wedding a few weeks back and what I remember from the wedding, aside from me doing having to do a slightly impromptu prayer in front of a ton of people, was the food.

I’ve been meaning to post this (yikes! 1 month delayed) but just wasn’t able to. It’s always been in the draft of my live writer. So here I am, finally posting these.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the names nor descriptions of these food, but what’s important is that they were all really really good. I remember having soup too. No idea why I wasn’t able to take a picture of it. They all look sumptuous. Reminds me of the numerous times I watched Top Chef. Presentation is as important as how the food tastes.

Of all the food below, the steak and mashed potato were my favorites. The mashed potato, in particular was the first of its kind that I tasted. Texture was different, and very yummy too. The best by far.

By the way, the food here was from Crowne Plaza. Not bad. I thought it was better than the Lauriat I had at Edsa Shang. Or maybe it was just because I prefer this over Chinese.

Wimbledon 2012 Finals

I was meaning to continue my Wimbledon commentary post Day 7, unfortunately, was unable to. No excuses.

Wimbledon’s two week tournament ended yesterday with Roger Federer winning over Andy Murray. It was a very emotional win for Federer, having lost the past two years, and last year not even making the finals. But I think it was even more emotional for Andy Murray, who gave a very endearing and heartwarming speech after losing the match three sets to one.

I, for one, could not help myself and tears started coming out when teary Murray said “I’m gonna try this and it’s not gonna be easy”. I think a lot of people watching this would have wanted to give Murray a hug. Although I was rooting for Federer, when Murray was breaking down here, I almost hoped he won the tournament instead.

Both of them played exceptionally well. Murray was aggressive at the start of the set, even breaking Federer during the first game and eventually getting the first set. I though this would be a match similar to Federer vs Beneteau where Federer ended up digging a huge hole going down 2 sets to love. However by the second set, Federer started showing why he was a 6 time Wimbledon Grand Slam winner. His movement around the court was fantastic.

Second set went to Federer, and the rest, was history. Andy Murray couldn’t keep up with Federer’s on court finesse and he succumbed to losing his fourth grand slam final match. And Federer, winning his 7th Wimbledon title matches Pete Sampra's’ record ot 7 Wimbledon championship. Not only that, when the new rankings come out, Federer is back on top!

Ladies Championship

As for the ladies championships, it was the American Serena Williams versus the first time grand slam finalist Pole Agnieszka Radwasnka. The two couldn’t be more different in styles. Williams is the hard hitting player, hitting 24 aces on her semi final match against Azarenka (it’s almost equivalent to 6 games – one set!) while Radwanska does not have the power, but has the tactical intelligence (a lot of people are comparing her to Martina Hingis).

The first set proved to be an unworthy final with Williams overpowering Radwanska to a 6-1 set. While it looked like it would be a final to forget, the second set was a turnaround with Radwanska feeling more comfortable on the court fighting of Williams’ attack by saving the set 7-5.

While it looked like the third set was going to be pretty tight, at 2-1, with Radwanska leading, Williams set off to launch 4 straight aces to level the playing field to 2-2. Radwanska couldn’t even move to even try and attempt to return the balls. I, personally think this was the turning point of the match because it gave the momentum and confidence back to Serena Williams and she ended up winning the next 4 games to capture her 5th Wimbledon Championship. Had Radwanska won, she would have become the #1 ranked female tennis player. But nonetheless, she gave a good fight against the stronger Williams and she proved that she is definitely an up and coming force in the tennis Ladies field.

Again, congratulations to Roger Federer and Serena Williams!

Bev’s Wimbledon Commentary

We are now onto the second round and final week of Wimbledon. And day 7 of the tournament proved to be an exciting 4th round.

Current French Open champ Maria Sharapova lost to Sabine Lisicki in two sets. This was a repeat of last year’s semi finals match where Sharapova beat Lisicki. But this time around, Lisicki drew ground from her powerful serves and Sharapova just couldn’t handle it. Sharapova, having the “never say die” attitude tried to come back on the second set, but Lisicki was just too good. Lisicki’s win puts her up to a match against the winner of Kim Clijsters and Angelique Kerber match.

Clijsters and Kerber have never had a previous match before and I was surprised when I woke up this morning, that the younger Kerber put away Clijsters like a pro, winning 6-1,6-1! So sad for Clijsters, who never reached the finals of the Wimbledon Championships. Unfortunately, this will be her last as she’s bound to retire by the end of the season.

Another good match from Federer last night against Malisse. Scary first set, where Federer had to go on a medical timeout due to some back pains. Thankfully, the Gods were with him because the match was suspended a little later due to rain. Lucky him. Two great saves. Hopefully he can sustain his momentum until the finals. However, the draw shows that Federer can face Djokovic as early as the semis. I’m really hoping Fed wins this time around.

Just some thoughts…

These days, I find the women’s draw more interesting than that of the men’s simply because there’s no one (or few) person dominating the women’s draw. The past 6 grand slam events were won by different women! That’s how interesting it is. As for the men, it’s always been Djokovic, Federer or Nadal. Quite uninteresting.

For example, moving to the quarterfinals, even though we have three grand slam champs still alive – Azarenka, Kvitova and S. Williams, it’s still not guaranteed that one of them would win. Heck, we don’t even know if they’d all get to the finals!

Quarterfinals Tonight

Tonight, Williams will be squaring off against reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. and I am predicting Kvitova will take charge of the match from the beginning. Williams’ past two matches have been very very tight, going deep on to the third set. Thus, I’m not sure how she will fair against Kvitova. She has to step up her game or the reigning champ will overpower her.

Another match that is a must watch will be Lisicki versus Kerber. Both are German, up and coming tennis superstars. One has a huge serve, while the other can catch all balls that come her way. This is definitely going to be a yoyo match. But I think Lisicki is going to win this.

I have a strange feeling that the three ladies grand slam champs won’t win the championships this year. I have a feeling it’ll be Lisicki, or Radwanska (one of my favorites who is slowly but surely creeping her way on to the quarterfinals). Of course, I am biased. But then again, as long as they produce quality tennis, I’m all for it!

As for the men’s side, I’m biased. I’m going with Roger all the way!

Keratin Blowout

I had a terrible, terrible case of bad hair day last Wednesday, that out of frustration, I went straight to Piandre, Trinoma after work to get a nice and long overdue hair treatment. I had, what the stylist have been recommending for me for a while – the Keratin blowout.

Here’s a simple and well explained article about what Keratin Blowout is all about.

I have a slight natural curl/wave to my hair so it’s definitely a challenge to manage it all the time. Unfortunately, I am too lazy to even manage it so it’s always chaotic. Thus, getting this treatment, so far, has really helped my hair be less chaotic and more manageable. No need for a long time of preparation just to get it straight.

What I love so far for the blowout is that my hair still have the hair body that I want, not too straight and flat, which I think won’t work for me. This blowout works really well for my preference, however, the unfortunate thing is that, it only holds up for 6-8 weeks, and costs quite a bit. I’m still hesitant to get the longer keratin treatment which should last for up to 6 months. According to the stylist, the hair will be much straighter, and a little more flat, which I don’t prefer. But who knows, maybe another frustrating hair day will lead me to getting that treatment!

What I learned though from the stylist is that, one should use a sulfate free shampoo after getting a treatment like this. It helps make the treatment last longer in your hair. Perhaps it was a marketing ploy because I ended up buying this shampoo from them!