The Lamp

Last September 9, 2006, we went to Hannah’s school for the parent-teacher consultation regarding the result of our daughter’s 1st periodical review as a pre-casa student. She got high grades on all her subjects and her teacher added that she participates actively in class. She is also the star dancer during their Buwan ng Wika presentation of “Bongga ka day!” While dancing, being a little girl who is so very familiar to us taking photos of her, she immediately smiled gracefully to whoever points a camera at her even if the actual target is the kid beside her – camera shy, hehe.

I’ll share with you one story that teacher Gemma told us. One time she asked all her pupils to get their notebook from their bags. Hannah did not know which notebook to get so teacher Gemma asked Hannah’s seat mate, Althea, to help her. The following day, she again asked her pupils to get their green book number 2. This time, Hannah did not do anything and just sat on her chair. When she asked Hannah why she isn’t doing anything, our 3.5 year old daughter replied “Althea will get my book for me.”

We left school and went straight to SM Mall of Asia. This is the second time we will go there after its opening last May 21, 2006. It was already 11:00AM so we stopped by Cinnabon in South Super Highway for a coffee break. This is becoming our routine stop whenever we go to Manila. We love their classic cinnamon rolls (Php 90) and cinnamon sticks (Php 85- for 6 pcs). Great for coffee. Goldilock’s have their version of cinnamon sticks. It’s cheaper (PhP 27) but the sticks are thinner and harder to bite. Unlike Cinnabon’s version that is very easy to bite and crunchy without being hard from the outer layer up all the way to the middle.

You’ll definitely not going to miss SM Mall of Asia (MOA). A huge bronze globe similar to Universal Studios welcomes you as you reach the south most tip of EDSA. Thank heavens we still got parking slots at the 4th level South Parking overlooking the Church of the Way, the Truth and the Life. MOA is the largest mall in the Philippines and the 3rd largest mall in the world (next to West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, China). It is built on 19.5 hectares of reclaimed land and has a gross floor area of 386,224 square meters. When we went there, the mall already have 700 plus establishments in its compound.

We looked for furniture, curtains and clothes. We found a nice lamp in Regalong Pambahay which we bought instantly. Meanwhile, Hannah was busy unbuttoning and buttoning all clothes she can see. This is the new skill taught to them in school. I became a victim of her new skill one time I went home from work. She wouldn’t let me change to my home clothes because she wants to repeatedly button and unbutton my polo shirt.

We ate a late lunch in Taste Asia at 4PM. The Kapampangan pork sisig set meal (upper pics, Php 75) was sinfully good. We ordered one more sizzling plate of it good for two without the rice (Php 120). The grilled oysters with cheese and garlic (lower pics, PhP 199 for 14 pcs) look great but did not taste fresh. We did not finish even half of it. I hope others did not have the same experience.

We finally had dinner by 10PM at Tandoori King after my wife finally gave up shopping. If you are into fragrant spices, exotic flavors, savory dishes, and that curry taste, go to Tandoor King. Tandoor (lower right pic) is a primitive clay oven rubbed with masala spice and used in the East for centuries to cook meats on a bed of hot charcoal. It originated in ancient India several centuries ago. Whenever the emperors and maharajas traveled, their elephants carried the clay ovens so the royal chefs can prepare delicious juicy roasted meats and fowl and hot breads for the princely travellers. The Tropicanaan pizzanaan (lower left pic, PhP 175) is their version of pizza that uses tandoori bread called naan as its crust then topped with ham, pineapple and mozzarella cheese. Different crust - yummy.

Other MTV inspired pizzanaan varieties are Black Eyed Peas and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Tandy’s combo (upper right pic, PhP 225) is the sampler meal where you get tandoori chicken, tandoori liempo, fish tikka tandoori and tandoory spicy longanisa served with saffron rice, heavenly salsa, and Tandy sauce. Yummy.
We left MOA at 11:00PM

This is the lamp we bought (left pic) from Regalong Pambahay. We got the vase (right pic) for free by using the gift certificates that we earned when we bought the lamp.

Lilia contemplating how to redesign our living room (at 1:30 in the morning!)

This is the finished product.

And these are the product we finished - Go Nuts Donuts and coffee for breakfast.