Unwelcoming 2010
Hostile on the new year, eh?
That’s not as hostile as my first choice for blog title: 2009 You Bastard, 2010 You Bitch.
Though now that the holidays are over, expectations of daily life has normalised, and there’s none of that bloated, hopeful feeling, I now finally possess that settled feeling. December was the hardest, considering its where my birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve converge.
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Like most difficult predicaments this year, music was there to the rescue. I’ve always found it corny when people say music saved their lives blah blah, but now I understand: music doesn’t disappoint, people do.
On my sickbed this August, there were the dancing ladies of Perfume. On those overly emotional commute to work, there was the hope-laded pop-rock anthems of Kaela Kimura (I’ve discussed both acts on a previous post). On New Year’s Eve, the last chance that anyone could really cheer me up, I discovered ukulele geek-girl Tsuji Ayano.
There’s a more elaborate post on Ayano on my music blog here.
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The first half of New Year’s Eve was at work. I had expectations, but then I had a backup plan: buy pansit, make that festive food that night. However, after confirming via a phone call that this pansit place was open and was located where I would usually pass on the way to the bus terminal home -it was still listed as part of the now non-existent Fiesta Carnival on online directories- and locating the place, I resorted to doing the groceries to cook my own pansit. The pansit restaurant, which normally had the usual chairs and tables, was converted on that day to look like a busy phone billing area in the mall, an offsite horse-race betting place, an airline ticketing office on peak promo days. I was too tired and emotional to bother.
I cooked a Quezon special, sweet pansit chami, too much of it that I still have a plateful of it on the ref. Got sugar-free vanilla ice cream, too, which I realized was almost double the expected price on the checkout counter. No matter, I deserve this ice cream.
I damn well deserve that ice cream.
Christmas Eve, 2009
Merry Christmas to me! A new Samick Greg Bennett Design UK-50 Concert Ukulele on foreground, and my cheap months-old Lyric soprano ukulele on top.
Its not technically Christmas yet, but then I’m at home with nothing much to do, which hasn’t been the practice for the past few years. I’d usually be at my brother’s place in Laguna with the pamangkin’s. Slept most of the day, and waking up early evening, it doesn’t look like my kuya and I will be making the 3-4 hour trek today.
Christmas eve started early as I woke up before my workday alarm, hungry, since the only thing I did after arriving home last night was open the gate, slide the house-door, put aside the gifts for the kids, put down bag, go to room, take away the day’s garments of filth, lie down in bed and sleep. The commute home was done by ditching the provincial bus beeline of people, which already stretched to another terminal. Ditching the line involves waiting for everyone to be seated and waiting for the bus conductor’s instructions that there was still room to stand along the aisle. It was Christmas eve’s eve, and I’m scared of the NLEX traffic situation, so I boarded.
An hour before that I was at a toy sale, and what I expected to be an easy task turned out to be like all my other presumed easy tasks: it took me a rather long to decide what to buy. Two boys, an eight year-old and a five year-old, should be a fairly easy duo to buy toys for, but then the eldest, Enzo, who’s my godson as well, as far as I can remember, was into Beyblade’s, or something like that. My brothers and I grew up salivating over Mazinger Z (their generation), and Voltron (my time), what’s this fuss about a multi-colored top? I almost settled on a big-boxed Pokemon arena thing, but I found out later it needed some effort to construct. My nephew’s haven’t shown any patience to do that, so yes boys, you will get Transformers.
Music Profile Podcast of 2009
toe – After Image Feat. Harada Ikuko
I don’t think its believable, based on the music I listened to this year, that I could come up with a music list for 2009. Most of the music took a sidestep to all the Perfume and Kaela Kimura kitsch I wallowed in. What I sought out instead, just today, would be to come up with some songs from records released this year, and do a podcast on it. Sans rankings.
This is my profile of 2009-released music, in two parts. The differences are not so distinct, but the first one includes the more conventional songs, while the second one has a handful of brooding instrumental music, electronic/dance, and pretty brutal rock.
Stream Music Profile 2009 Podcast – Part 1 using the player below:
Download this part (Part 1) of the podcast here.
The Birthday Post
This was a personally difficult birthday to go through, and I just had to spend that day, and the four days that followed it, at home, since I filed for time off from work. I had the option to socialize, but the provincial commuter’s holiday traffic -infinitely worsened by the new MRT construction- stops me from even considering that. Then, there’s my health to consider. So, I satisfied myself with a few little things, such as:
A mattress.
A few weeks ago, I had a ‘high’ of some sort for a few days, from cleaning my workstation area and room. See, I’m admittedly sloppy, and what I did was weird. Having a new mattress, I think, preceded that. Maybe its part of a physical cleansing I want to go through, which, in large part, is due to my ongoing illness. Anyhow, the literature is sketchy here, but mattresses should be replaced after 5-10 years. I don’t know how long I have had mine, but what I knew was, my mind won’t let me rest until I got a new one.
A front pocket wallet
I noticed my wallet looked worn already shortly before December. Hence, a new one should be a nice, reasonably cheap birthday treat. Like most things I get interested in, web searching lead me to the front pocket wallet, a thinner, less bulky version of the normal men’s wallet; also highly-advised since the bulk of a back-pocket wallet contributes to back pain, etc. A Cubao-wide mall search ensued, and I did get my version of one, which I don’t believe conforms to the standard (which sometimes involves, tada, a money clip), but it is now nested snugly and not as bumpy in the front pocket of my maong shorts.
Carnation Family Food Trip 2009, Part 1
Like last year in Baguio, I was invited to join Appetite Magazine and Carnation’s Family Food Trip last Wednesday, this time down south in Batangas.
Fried Tawilis from Batangas
Being just a few days away from my birthday, and scheduled on my exact weekday work restdays, the promise of another food tour was very timely. Except for the part that I was deadset on my diet by that time, which involved eating a lot less red meat and processed food, adding the same amount of brown rice to white rice, and generally eating healthier than usual.
A compromise was taken without any hesitation. It’s also been too long since I took pictures.
Peanut Brittle Making at Taal, Batangas
The tour’s first stop was Taal, which I didn’t know was a Heritage City, same as Vigan. The cozy provincial vibe, the narrow streets, and the old churches reminded of a town further south: I spent summer vacations as a kid in Tayabas, Quezon, and I always wax poetic about those times. The ancestral houses, however, was a different thing, as they were scattered around the town, unlike Vigan. Most were in a semi-dilapidated state, but it was still a welcome sight that they still do exist. We were informed that there was a conscious effort to keep fast-food establishments out, but I couldn’t help noticing the 7-11.