Corregidor in Pictures, Part 5

The bus contraption leaves tourists here and meets them at the other side...There's an extra fee of P150 just to enter (East Entrance).
Once you're in, a show begins. The guide duides you to (almost) each of the smaller tunnel openings along the main one.
And you get to see these tunnel openings furnished like how they used to look like during the war; and hear recorded commentaries.
Or you see slides of important World War 2 personalities...
At the end of the presentation which ran about thirty minutes and will definitely tire you out, the National Anthem is played while a fan blows at the flag to make it wave.
And then salvation! The light at the end of the tunnel!
Some of the lateral tunnels have caved in and are not yet safe to refurbish or go through.
The back end.

Upcoming in Part 6... Turistas!

No Luk-Yuen-joy will not.

I think Luk Yuen has been around for quite a while. I think Luk Yuen has had this menu when it first started. I think Luk Yuen should think about new things to offer. Or maybe I'm wrong and Luk Yuen wants to remain how it is. And I think it is now a so-so Chinese restaurant. There are better noodle houses with better food. I can't find much on their menu that would make me want to go back and dine there, I'm sorry.
No, not this fish wrapped in seaweed.
Nor the braised beef and broccoli.
Oh and I noticed they no longer serve shark's fin siomai. Aw.

Iceberg, right ahead!

So I was craving for some ice cream that night. And Metrowalk was nearby...The ice cream parlor was a third full. It was already late. And by the looks of things, the shop will close down for the night very soon.
While waiting for our orders, we can't help but look around. The color scheme is mostly red and orange. I heard a lot of food restaurants use red because it somehow entices people to eat. I then think about toros and the red flag/cloth toreadors wave at them...
Anyway, the pictures of ice cream and splits and parfaits are enticing too.
So I have a mango parfait.
And here's a cappuccino sundae, I think.
Yummy!

Corregidor in Pictures, Part 4

More heavy metal... Would you look at the size of those bullets! Cannon fodder all lined up in a row...
An overhead view of one in the museum... Imagine the last second of your life looking into one of these.
Dark shot of the parade grounds...
Cannon heads in pieces and scattered across the hillside...
The hillside had a name- Battery Geary, hidden by the forest but still destroyed by an air barrage.
And here, at another battery (not the small kind that powers your electronic devices or even your car)...
To scale a giant...
If this were the Decepticon Megatron... what a site to behold him transform!

Upcoming in Part 5... the Malinta Tunnel!

Third Bourne

First of all, the cinema was very nice. Large screen, comfortable seats... (Shangri-la Edsa Plaza Mall Cineplex) Ok, regarding the movie- I haven't seen the two previous installments but I was blown away by this one. Drama: I especially liked the shots of partly covered faces. And you still sense what they're feeling. Suspense: What an idiot the reporter was! He should have followed what Jason Bourne was telling him to do. He was about to get away... alive. Oh, well. Oh and the jumping over and above roofs and through windows- move over spider-man! Look, ma, no webbing! Action: Wow. The scenes when he was duking it out versus the assets/killers sent after him was so intense! The car chase was grand too. So unreal when he backed his car over the edge of a building roof, and it rolls over a car or two parked at the ground level and he just runs away from the scene.
Made me want to see the first two movies of this trilogy. Great movie. Great story. 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Adobo Republic @ Metrolane P.Tuazon

Everyone loves adobo! Nuff said.

Corregidor in Pictures, Part 3

Click on the title for the wikipedia entry for Corregidor.

*******

Here it is, the lighthouse.

A communications tower...Backdoor to the lighthouse...
A nice directions post in the center of the courtyard...
View from the top... well, not exactly the top, top.
A peephole...
Another stylized window- this one in the form of a cross...
A nice shot of the lighthouse and our bus' bell...
And a few steps backwards...

Upcoming in Part 4... more heavy metal!

Med-Express, Ortigas

What a convenience! Because there are no lines of people waiting to be served. I tried to have some medicines delivered and the service was ok. I went to a branch and the attending pharmacist was congenial. Their prices are supposedly less than the leading drugstore. And they will give you a card to track your purchases and you get some rebate for every peso spent. I now have about 8 bucks worth. Oh and I also heard that they can keep track of your medicine supply for you and you can have them follow you up when you already need a fresh supply. Now that's great. So if you're ever in need of medicines or other medical supply stuff, stuff you buy at drugstores, and you're in the Ortigas area, the Med-Express branch is at the Automoville compound. 634-3333 is their number.

Corregidor in Pictures, Part 2

Click on the title for a site offering a brief history of Corregidor.

*******

I'm happy I wasn't there during the war.
I don't want to imagine the thousands of bodies piling up dead then.I'm glad to have not had the chance to look into this barrel when it was still functioning.The tour guide said Corregidor was a veritable wasteland after the war. It took years and years before the government-spread ipil-ipil seeds grew and re-forestation of the island was complete.The recoil on these things must have been tremendous.And when it spun to an angle, the ground must have shook.And here we are now, oblivious to the death and tragedy. Feared war tools are now amusing photo elements.Why, oh, why didn't I get on one too?!?
Upcoming in Part 3... the Lighthouse!

DO NOT go to Aruba Bar in Metrowalk

I had a bad dining experience at Aruba Bar in Metrowalk recently that explains the post title. Simply put, they starved me. I came in before 9PM and ordered pizza and Tom Collins. I specifically instruct to hold any and all kinds of add-ons beside the meat and cheese. An hour later, yes, you heard it right, just before 10PM, and after a couple of follow-ups (and they told me the first time that pizzas come out in just 10 minutes, the second time I followed up they said it takes 15 minutes to cook), the pizza finally arrives, cold, and with olives on top. I had to slowly explain to the waitress that the pizza is cold. Two minutes later, she takes the dish and tells me that they will re-heat it. It wasn't the best pizza I've tasted, doesn't even come close to above average. And it costs around P300. The Tom Collins arrived earlier, didn't taste any better, and costs P80 a pop. I had two just to ease my tension.

Music/Entertainment: 3 out of 5 stars.
Pizza/Drink: 2.75 out of 5 stars.
Ambiance: 3 out of 5 stars.
Service: 2 out of 5 stars.
Pricing - Food: 2 out of 5 stars.
Pricing - Drinks: 3 out of 5 stars.

There must be better hang-out places out there than Aruba Bar and Restaurant (Metrowalk).

Corregidor in Pictures, Part 1

Corregidor is a tadpole-shaped or spermatozoa-shaped, depending on your gender (kidding!), island west of Manila and strategically positioned at the mouth of Manila Bay. It was a key base for the American and Filipino soldiers who tried to fend off the Japanese invaders during World War 2. It fell into Japanese control after months of combat. Three years later, it would be re-captured by the Americans, and the Japanese would finally surrender and end their invasion of Asia.

The series of posts about Corregidor display pictures taken during my first trip to the island with my officemates last August 12, 2007.

*******

The cruise liner left its Manila Bay/CCP station around 8AM. Travel time to Corregidor would be an hour and a half. Owing to the choppy waters, I puked twice. Once on the island, the sights were enough to dispel my dizzy spell.

Below: the boat we came in on and some of the cable-car looking "buses" tourists ride on to go around the island.
Our group was assigned Bus #1. I don't know if that's why we were the first to depart the port.
Below: what's left of a building.
Below: view of the only hotel where we'll be having our lunch from the bus on our way to the first stop.
Here's our bus and our tour guide seated in front.
Our first stop: the Middleside Barracks where the single soldiers stayed.
Upcoming in Part 2... Cannons!

The Simpsons Movie

I don't remember much about the movie except I was laughing all throughout. It was like a long Simpsons cartoon and you see the whole town and almost every townsfolk. Funny silly: Bart gets caught skateboarding across town naked; Homer dumps a phallus-shaped pig-shit silo into the lake; Disney-esque forest creatures come into the Simpson's new Alaskan cabin and help the married couple with taking their clothes off; Ah-nohld is president of the United States. Go see the movie and laugh heartily. 3 out of 5 stars. Official website here.

Top of the world wide web

Funny how after only 3 votes this week, this blog is #1 at the Pinoy-Blogs site. It's a good thing they refresh the count weekly. I quickly captured a snapshot because this may never happen again. I know porn and download sites are more popular. But if you somehow do like this blog, scroll down to the lower left where you will see a couple of buttons- one for Pinoy-Blogs and another for Pinoy Topsites then click on one or both and vote for this blog. Thank you!

To love, with love

Spreading love one message at a time, this site has a sweet concept- to collect love messages from all over the world. You might just get a tip or lesson or three from the posts that you would read there. And of course, you can contribute your own message to your significant other, or even a crush, or very close friend, to the site. Here's the site description from blog author Mauro from Portugal:

1 Million Love Messages it’s a place to share our best loving feelings with the world. This Blog is made - almost all - by readers. In this project I receive and publish Love Messages sent by people from all around the world. It’s where you can share what you feel for someone special in your life: you’re boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, sun, daughter, mother, father… Or where you can simply share a Love Thought with the world. It’s a Blog about love in our life… love in the world.

Share away!

World Chicken @ Katipunan Ave.

I love it! De-boned chicken dishes! Tasty! Affordable! Nice ambiance! Look...The mango juice was ordinary tasting...
Here's the counter where the honest cashier who gave back the 20 bucks that we over-paid is stationed.
Here's a bit of the laminated cardboard menu.
And here's one of the affordable meals consisting of chicken, pasta and potato salad. It's a big plate. Filling.
Oh and World Chicken is available for franchise, just like it says in the webpage that would open when you click on the entry title.

Yellow Cab @ Robinson's Galleria

We trooped to Galleria last Friday to have pizza lunch with my officemates. The designated venue: Yellow Cab. We won a gift certificate from an office quiz type of contest. I'm posting the link to the official Yellow Cab website here so you can look at their menu from there because I forgot to take shots of the food again. And we were hungry. And we got lost in the hearty conversation. So, to have something to post here, I took shots of the walls and the lighting fixtures, and the empty boxes of pizza and some spicy noodles we ate... Enjoy!

A nice yellow sign greets the customer. Have you heard about the thing with restaurant signs being mostly red because that particular color somehow affects hunger?
They have a large wall-mounted menu so you won't have trouble pointing to what you'd like to have on a small folding menu.
While waiting for the food, you'll notice the nice set of hanging lamps. More aliens in the metro? :)
We distribute the paper plates and the plastic utensils and the soda. Coke light for me!
Then we chit-chat for a while. And when the food arrived, everything went quiet. Kidding, we got to interview the three new members on our teams... Again, no food pictures. Above is the "before" shot. Following are the "after" shots.
Someone else's plate.Burp.
Yellow Cab in Robinson's Galleria is located at the lower ground floor in front of the escalators and near the Mobile Phone store of Sony Ericsson.

Marimar

This month, Philippine TV's GMA-7 broadcasts the remake of the 90's RPN-9 primetime hit, Marimar. Reprising the role of Thalia is relative newcomer Marian Rivera whose pictures are shown below.
She's so pretty! She was last seen on TV as the mother of super-powered kids, the Super Twins; and before that, in an afternoon drama co-produced by a Malaysian broadcasting company. More information about her on igma.tv.

Graphic Expression

If you want to create your own custom images like the one below to use in your websites, blogs, presentations, etc., then I suggest you click the title of this entry and head on over to ImageChef.com where you can customize images for whatever needs you have. Fancy writing in the sand or on wet cement? Want to see how your name looks like tatooed on someone's back? Browse ImageChef's library of customizable images now and you may just find that special graphic to send your special someone.