Beautiful, Irritating

... all beautiful as only the young can be beautiful. Even the ugly ones were beautiful, even the surly ones, the fat ones, even the spotty ones. None of them understands this--how beautiful they are. But nevertheless they're irritating, the young. Their posture is appalling as a rule, and judging from their songs they snivel and wallow, grin and bear it having gone the way of the foxtrot. They don't understand their own luck.

Noted from Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin

Some People Can't

"But some people can't tell tell where it hurts. They can't calm down. They can't stop hurting."

Noted from The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Colours She Looked Locked Up In

"I could picture... the dress she would have been wearing, a shirtwaist with a small rounded collar, in a sober colour--navy blue or steel grey or hospital corridor green. Penitential colors--less like something she'd chosen to put on than like something she'd been locked up in."

Noted from The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Reading in the Dark

The combination of storm and a blackout sent me straight to the Dark Ages last week: no television, no Internet, no mobile phone. Thankfully, I'm old enough to have grown up during the time when Lent or Holy Week entailed similar deprivations. So I resorted to what I love best: reading. I was amazed at how much reading I had accomplished with all the modern distractions taken away, and also relieved that I'm still capable of sitting down for a few hours at a time.


Sometimes, a candle, a good novel and coffee are all you need.

Last Friday Night: The Misshapes Live in Manila

Friday night, I had dinner with great friends, Che and Len, at the restaurant Felix.


Felix is a middling to fine restaurant, depending on what the diner, confronted with myriad choices, decides to order. Case in point, the two dishes Che and I shared:

 










 Pasta with pesto, beef and sausages: dry and underseasoned, amateurish.

Pan-seared sea bass, scallops and foie gras on a bed of stewed cabbage: so much better. (But what a crime it would be to mess up three of the most wonderful ingredients in the world--by mere pan-searing.)
 
Len had some version of Hainanese chicken rice, which looked dry and not very attractive--so no photo of that.

 


Len's sparkly purple Rachel Roy shoes, on the other hand, are photo-worthy. I love them.
 
Then we, along with another great friend, Kate, were off to Opus to see The Misshapes + The Zombettes spin.

 


Kate, Me, Len, Hyc and Che

 

The Misshapes' Geordon Nicol and Leigh Lezark. Mr. Nicol was nice and even chatted a bit with me when we were introduced. Ms. Lezark looked like she would rather be somewhere else, distant and cold. (Come to think of it, Ms. Lezark did very little DJ-ing that night.)

  

Us, with our friend Nico, who is part of the night's promoter.

 


Kate holding the duo's nameplate.

I had so much fun I decided to stay behind when everybody else had decided to leave some time after 3am. I wanted to keep my promise to Mr. Nicol that I'd finish his entire set.

WIWT Friday

   

It's What I Wore Today Friday.

This is my uniform these days, really: simple and basic clothes, plus a tie or bow tie. My wear-to-death shoes of the moment are these ultra comfortable Jack Purcells, paired always with the blue ribbon belt from Uniqlo. I haven't learned to break the now seemingly antiquarian rule of matching shoe and belt color. I don't know if I ever will. It's how I grew up.

*Uniqlo shirt, jeans and belt; Topman bow tie; Jack Purcell shoes

Hello

 

I love few things more than a fresh start. Having recently turned 31, I've decided to create this new blog. This is my online 'slit in a hollow post,' an online 'shoe,' in which to put 'all that I love, but for the moment--and for all time, both.'

*Tote by Team Manila