punch balls

D surprised me with a bouquet of flowers today :D he says it's a reward for my two weeks of hard work haha. sweet :)

Spent a quiet saturday night at greenbelt. Had dinner at Mesa then dessert at Qoolai. Dropped by Le Petit Artisan to get chocolate croissants. They have a buy one take one offer starting 8pm or 9pm. I tried their walnut loaf before but found it a bit dry, but I read somewhere that they have good pandesal. I was still reeling from my pain au chocolat from Paris Delice weeks back so I couldn't resist getting a couple of chocolate croissants/danish breads. Oh, D also got us punch balls - little balls filled with ganache according to the salesperson. It comes in three variants - dark chocolate, white chocolate, and green tea. We got the green tea variant so as not to overload on chocolate. I have yet to eat it but I'll share my verdict :)

Ended the night with a bowl of blueberry, NY cheesecake (nice flavor!), and green tea yogurt.

Listened to a few songs from the 80's on the way home. I've never been a big fan of old songs, except for Peter Cetera and Richard Marx, but this song could be a contender as one of my favorites.

book fair

I was in book heaven today :D
After lunch and pwa tiong chiu in Valenzuela, D and I headed to SMX for the last day of the book fair. Believe it or not, it was my first time to go to this annually organized book fair. Except for the crowds, it was pure happiness.
I got myself a vegetarian cookbook, a desserts cookbook, and a children's cookbook :) I also got a Laughter is the Best Medicine compilation of those funny anecdotes from Reader's Digest. Lastly, I got a few back issues of showbiz and entrepreneur magazines. Saw some music books also but nothing really caught my eye.
It would've been cool going there as a student as a lot of the books were reference books - lots of good psychology books.

To add to this interesting day, there were lots of people dressed up as anime characters at SMX. I think there was an anime event on the upper floors. It was cool seeing all sorts of costumes and lots of kids were pointing out their favorite characters. Of course, I couldn't name any of the characters, but D recognized a few from Naruto.

There was a kid dressed as Sun WuKong (at least it looked like he was from the lower part of his costume) with a matching monkey tail, and his playmate was pulling him by tugging on his tail. It was a hilarious sight. Some people commented that the costume would be handy when taking your kids out haha.

After all the book browsing, we headed off to MOA. Got to try Chatime (D had the grass jelly roasted milk tea and I had the oolong tea mousse). The drinks were just okay. My taste buds prefer serenitea.

And so ends another Sunday. I shall strive to survive another week without Nini at the office. At least, I can read a couple of funny stories in my Laughter compilation after a long day. Nothing but laughter to rejuvenate the mind and senses. Reminds me of the Tumblr post I chanced upon the other day. "Smile. Happiness looks gorgeous on you." Super love the last line.

tired

after clocking in 12-hour work days for the past week or so, i am starting to feel a little tired. my bed has never looked more inviting, but ironically, i can't seem to sleep as easily. i think it's because i feel i have to do some "me" things to compensate for all that work time. so i surf the net,  i read a chapter or two of a book (currently reading The Three Weissmanns of Westport), watch tv. Routine. Monotony. I think i'll get the hang of all this after a week or two. But by then, Nini would be back :)

Books

It's been a while since I've curled up with a good book. Here are a few books I've read over the past two weeks. I especially love the last two books as they invoke a certain feeling of comfort.

What Alice Forgot struck me because I could see myself in Alice. It reminded small things can have a domino effect until it explodes into big problems and arguments, problems that often started because of pride. It was a wake up call as well, as to how different one's point of view can be in a span of 10 years, and how important it is to listen and to understand others. Reminds me a bit of The Little Prince. It does us good to keep a bit of childlike wonder in us.

- Sarah Dessen - What Happened to Goodbye 
- Liane Moriarty - What Alice Forgot
- Allison Winn Scott - The One That I Want
- Erica Bauermeister - The School of Essential Ingredients

chocolate overload

Hello weekend!

Saturdays are my transition days because they mark the end of my work week and are a primer for my Sunday rest days. Saturdays are also when I see D after a long week.

Although this week has been nice in that we've seen each other almost every day thanks to the non-working holidays. On Wednesday, we had a fun buffet dinner with Ni and H at Marriott where we got to experience great service. The cooks and waiters were quite accommodating, and they even went out of their way to whip up an order of buffalo wings for us even if they weren't part of the buffet dishes. Awesome service!

Had dinner at H's place on Thurs to celebrate his Chinese birthday. Got to see Ni and H's place. Renovations are a lot of hard work. But gosh, seeing the results is such a rewarding experience.

So today, after my tutor session, D and I had a simple dinner at Brasserie Boheme. I had the spinach and wild mushroom ravioli and he had the lemon sole with spinach and pea risotto. The desserts weren't so great but the coffee was pretty good. 

Since we were in the area, we dropped by Chocolate Fire, as I have been quite curious about the place since hearing about it from friends. My gosh, it's chocolate heaven! Chocolate-dipped strawberries are 95/pc for medium sized ones while the large sized ones come at a heftier price. Was curious about the chocolate dipped cheddar bites but didn't quite feel like eating cheese after just having had dinner. Next time :)

They have a pretty wide selection of chocolates - mostly with different types of nuts - almond, pistachio, hazelnuts, cashews, honeycomb, macademia nuts, cornflakes, coconut. Prices are set at 50g units. The place kind of reminded me of Jones Grocer, except that the selection was all chocolate. Chocolate bars are available in either milk or dark chocolate.

D and I each had a cup of dark chocolate, his with cinnamon, mine with a mild dose of chili (which was quite spicy already). The chili complemented the dark chocolate and added quite a zing. Sinful!

We tried the almond and citrus bar in milk and dark chocolate (a bit too citrus-y for me), pistachio bar (my favorite!), and coconut (couldn't quite taste the coconut).

The chocolate bars pack quite a crunch and are of better quality than the commercial  chocolate bars. You can see chunks of nuts mixed in the chocolate.

Lots of people ordered the fondue. D and I look forward to trying that next time, preferably with a group of friends :)