Diner at Maginhawa Street, UP Village

Diner at Maginhawa Street, UP Village

We were again looking for some place new to eat lunch at in UP Village and tried one at a new building just across the apartments along Maginhawa Street where we used to live at almost two decades ago. We found this American Diner-style restaurant where we thought we could have a quick meal. It was [...]

Hello Australia!

Hello Australia!

I'm traveling again and this time it is to a place I or the Clairvoyant have never been to before - Australia. I am now at Melbourne to participate at a symposium at one of the major universities here. Afterwards, I will have a couple of nights in Sydney en route to Manila. I have many friends and former [...]

Mi Terraza resort in Antipolo City

Mi Terraza resort in Antipolo City

To celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of my in-laws and the 75th birthday of my father-in-law last week, we decided to have a different kind of celebration where family can enjoy catching-up over good food and some swimming. This time, too, it helped that we had additional conversation pieces in [...]

Strap replacement for a Swatch

Strap replacement for a Swatch

I have several Swatch watches in my small collection. One is supposed to be a commemorative watch from UP's centennial in 2008. Such commemorative watches were the "in" thing a decade ago when different schools basically chose an old Swatch model that featured elements related to the school (usually [...]

A curious painting by Monnar Baldemor

A curious painting by Monnar Baldemor

A very interesting painting we had acquired together with the work by Manuel Baldemor is one by his son Monnar. We chose this one among several presented to us by a suki art dealer. The first thing that caught my attention was the central figures of a couple of ladies who appeared to be dancing or prancing [...]

Chocolate review: Villars Smooth Dark

Chocolate review: Villars Smooth Dark

The wife and I saw a couple of Villars chocolate bars in our cache. One is this dark chocolate that claims to be a smooth one.Villars Smooth Dark Swiss chocolateDetailed information on the chocolate at the back of the boxThe bar claimed to contain at least 56% cacaoNutrition and expiration information [...]

Watercolors by a Cebuano artist

Watercolors by a Cebuano artist

There are two framed watercolor paintings at home. I also acquired them while on a trip in Cebu almost a decade ago. I forget the name of the artist but he was young and was introduced to me by Boy Kiamko who took the former under his wing. At the time, it seemed that the young artist, who was a college [...]

Mother and child by Boy Kiamko

Mother and child by Boy Kiamko

A painting in our daughter's bedroom is an abstract image of the classic mother and child. It is a work by well-known Cebuano artist Boy Kiamko. I got it the first time I met him, introduced by a common friend who also got some of his works.Our daughter likes this painting as she understood what it [...]

Vietnamese painting

Vietnamese painting

The Clairvoyant's second trip to Vietnam more than a decade ago yielded a few artworks including small ones that are now spread around our home. The small ones are mostly prints that we framed and hung in pairs. One oil painting stands out among that haul and which I feature in this post.The photo above [...]

Lady with a flute Jay-R Delleva

Lady with a flute Jay-R Delleva

Another favorite of our daughter is this painting by Jay-R Delleva. The painting depicts a woman playing a flower flute while hummingbirds fly around her. Our daughter sees her as some kind of fairy and so we keep it at that. The painting's quite large and for a time sat on the console table in our [...]

Girl with bubbles and gumamela by Jomike Tejido

Girl with bubbles and gumamela by Jomike Tejido

I start July with another post on a painting we have at home. There's a large painting at home that's quite unique. We got this painting through a fundraiser a friend of the Clairvoyant was running. It got her attention as the painting reminded her of our daughter's fascination with bubbles.Unlike other [...]